House and His Accidental Teenage Bride
by myselfdenver
Summary: House gets married? To a teenager? How did THAT happen?
1. Chapter 1

**One: House and His Accidental Teenage Bride**

 **My story may not be for everyone; no story is loved or even liked by everyone. If my story is not for you, that's ok, move on and no hard feelings. My story is in no way mandatory reading for anyone. In less polite terms…Don't like it? Don't read it.**

 **Sorry readers, I deleted and am re-posting this story and lost everything. If you previously favored or followed this story, please do so again.**

Character development is very important in a novel. Have you ever read a novel that is all action and no character development? I don't know about you but I just can't get interested in those stories. I feel nothing in common with those un/underdeveloped characters because there is nothing to empathize with or relate to or to care about.

The House characters are already fully developed. We watched and loved these characters for eight seasons. We know their facial expressions, body language, their way of talking and the voices they use to express themselves, what they like and don't like and the way they relate to each other. I don't need to devote any time to developing these characters because they are already fully developed.

Isabella is brand new. We know nothing about her, so I have worked very hard to developed her character and make her real.

Isabella is one of the two main characters in my novel and occupies a major part of this story. If this bothers you, move on.

Isabella is a former abused and neglected child. Because of her history she concentrates everything she is into her work and school life. She is very accomplished in these areas. Also because of her history and because she has concentrated on work, she has had very little socialization outside of work and in many ways is still just a scared under socialized abused little girl as well as being accomplished in the work area. House finds the combination interesting.

To all my valued readers, please take the time to sign in if you would like to post a review, or send me a signed PM so I can respond to your concerns. I seldom publish anonymous reviews.

Story Notes:

I goofed. The legal drinking age in New Jersey is 21. I decided I would use a note to correct my mistake instead of rewriting my entire story

The information about the necessity of using anti rejection drugs after a transplant is pure nonsense. I made it up for the story. If you have had a transplant, take your medication as ordered. The study about protein and muscle health is also made up.

Don't take any advice (medical, legal or other) from this novel; this is a work of fiction.

All characters are fictional. The characters from the TV show House belong to David Shore and company; the other characters are figments of my imagination and belong to me ** _._**

Author's Notes

I wrote this novel for the 2015 National Novel Writing Month challenge. Prior to this year I had written stories for myself as a child. This book represents my first literary work in about 50 years. The Nanowrimo challenges writers to complete a novel of at least 50,000 words in 30 days during the month of November.

I knew that I wanted to write a House fan fiction, but there are many thousands of fan fiction stories about House and it was a challenge to find a subject that hadn't been done many times already.

I saw a short segment on the news about people who have been "roofied". These drugs are still used for their traditional purpose of having non-consensual sex but there is a new use as well: they are now also used on strangers; men and woman of all ages, just for someone's demented amusement.

I decided to combine fan fiction with this contemporary social issue to create my new book.

The first five chapters of this book go into great detail about the physical, emotional and mental reactions a person who has been roofied might experience. Although these chapters are difficult to read, they have been thoroughly researched and they do realistically portray the experiences of the victims of these assaults.

If you do not want to read about this social issue, you could choose to skip to Chapter Six.

The remainder of the book illustrates the serious life changes of two victims of this horrible practice. How do they deal with their unintended marriage and the other situations that were the result of their attack? Their lives were drastically changed. How do they progress in healing and dealing with the emotional, mental and physical changes that were forced upon them? How does the relationship between these two strangers develop and how do they meet the challenges of their new lives?

Go on this difficult but hopeful journey with Gregory House and His Accidental Teenage Bride.

Introduction

This story is set in season 8. Wilson does not have cancer. House has worked hard to successfully complete his parole obligations. He only missed one appointment with his parole officer and that was because he was working on a critical case. Foreman explained the situation and the officer gave House an excused absence with a stern warning about what would happen if he missed another appointment. House made sure he never did miss another appointment: he didn't want to go back to prison…

House is now a free man. He has his job, his music, his team, his porn, life is good. He has fun with his team, still watches monster truck rallies with his best friend, and rides his motorcycle like a crazy man. Riding his motorcycle is **almost** as good as Vicodin!

Of course House being House, couldn't let on, but he is…OK… he is good. Like he told Nolan at Mayfield, what seemed like a lifetime ago; he was good. He tries to take his pain medicine as ordered, but House being House, well…he does better sometimes than other times. He still has pain; it is still a major impact on his life, but it isn't quite as bad as it has been during other periods of his life. When Wilson is busy at lunch time, House eats his lunch in Foreman's office. Anyone other than House would say that they were happy, happier than ever before: but House, being House, is OK. OK… well, OK is a good thing. House being human, wondered how long this OK time would last.

One: The Morning after the Night Before

Isabella gradually came to consciousness. Something was wrong. She had a mind numbing headache. Her brain felt like it would explode and her heart was beating way too fast, it was difficult to breathe and her mouth tasted like vomit. "Oh my god" she slowly and vaguely thought, "What is wrong with me? Am I dying?"

Thinking was difficult, fuzzy, she felt dizzy, confused, and sluggish and her head was killing her! Normally she got up easily in the morning and started her busy day right away but just opening her eyes seemed impossible this morning. She felt like a limp rag doll; no muscle tone, no muscle control. Her mind slowly started to work slightly better. She realized that she was sweating. Finally she could open her eyes, just a crack. Immediately she closed them again. There was too much light from the bedside lamp. She tried to cover her eyes with her hands, but her arms wouldn't cooperate. Her arms were as weak and as wiggly as jello. She couldn't move them. She couldn't move anything. Isabella's brain was very confused and disoriented. She felt like she was floating somewhere outside of her body. She was scared and confused and she was also sooooo out of it. "Am I dreaming? This must be a dream, a really bad dream; a terrible nightmare." Without willing it, she fell back into an exhausted, drug induced sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Two: Where am I and How Did I Get Here?

It was morning. Isabella didn't remember waking up during the night. She didn't remember anything after ordering her very first beer at the neighborhood bar to celebrate her birthday. Was that the night before?

Isabella remembered the bar. She had never been inside a bar before and she found it depressing. She remembered lonely people sitting hunched around their drinks. It was dark in there and it didn't smell nice. Old fashioned music played. She didn't care for the music. Everyone there was old, older than her.

She remembered ordering a beer and tasting it. The beer was bitter. She didn't like it, but drank about half of it to see if the taste would grow on her. It didn't. Isabella didn't like beer. She didn't like the bar either. Why did she drink something she didn't like? Now she had a terrible, horrible hang over. She wished she hadn't gone there…but it _was_ her birthday.

Isabella remembered nothing after sipping that half glass of beer at the bar until now when she woke up for the second time today. She felt terrible and realized that she must have gotten drunk. Isabella wondered how a person could get drunk on half a glass of beer.

Ohhhh this was what a hangover felt like? Ohhhh man! OH MY GOD!

She was disoriented, her mind wouldn't work right. Her head hurt and her body just sunk into her couch, feeling weightless and heavy at the same time. Her muscles felt like cooked, limp noodles. She couldn't move, not because she didn't want to move, but because she **couldn't** move. She couldn't control her muscles.

Her mouth tasted like vomit and she could smell vomit, too. The smell made her want to vomit again. She couldn't open her eyes so she just lay there trying to coach her mind to wakefulness. Isabella decided to never, ever drink again. Ever! Everything was foggy. Maybe she dozed off again.

When she woke for the third time her mind worked a little better, but she was still very much under the influence of her drugged beer. She still didn't remember anything after sipping her beer the night before, including the two times she had woken.

She had to pee. It was an emergency! She tried rolling off the couch, but the couch was much wider than usual. How could that be? Her body didn't want to cooperate. It didn't want to move. It took all her self control and will power to open her eyes.

Isabella wasn't on her own couch. Where was she? This wasn't her lounge. She didn't know this room. This wasn't her bed! Where was she? Panic set in.

Isabella really had to pee. Panic at waking up in a strange place and in a strange bed was at war with a full bladder.

She had to pee NOW or have an accident. But where was she? She was scared. She saw part of a tub through an open door. Oh god she had to pee! She struggled to roll toward the edge of the bed and tried to put her feet on the floor.

She tried to stand but couldn't; she fell to the floor, banging and bruising her knee in the process. She couldn't stand! Her body would let her stand. She had little muscle control, but she had to pee. Why couldn't she stand up? Why was she so weak?

"What is wrong with me?"

Isabella ineffectually dragged herself to the bathroom not understanding why she had so little muscle control or why she was so sick and in so much pain. "What is wrong with me?" her brain kept repeating. It seemed to take forever to make her way from the bedroom into the bathroom. Isabella struggled but finally managed to get to the toilet and pulled herself up to sit on it. She fell several times before she made it. She leaked a little urine on the floor before sitting on the toilet. She noticed that there was already vomit on the floor. Her vision was so blurry. Her urine stream started. Ahhhhh relief. OMG, that relief felt so good. She almost fell back to sleep sitting on the toilet, but her balance and muscle tone was so poor that she couldn't sit up very well and every time her body tried to go back to sleep, it would start to fall and jerked her back awake. She managed to stay awake and to stay on the toilet. Maybe she drifted off for short spurts of time, she didn't know. She didn't know how long she sat there.

Her mind slowly started to wake up, just a little, and she came to the realization that her body was sticky and covered with dried sweat, and she smelled really bad. She was naked! Why was she naked? She felt pain in her vagina. There was dried, milky/clear stuff on her thigh and some dried blood, as well. Isabella started to cry.

She was so floppy that she lost her balance again and slipped and fell off the toilet and onto the floor, hurting her elbow when it smacked on the floor.

Isabella laid there for several minutes, exhausted, crying, out of control, and with a killer headache, queasy, in pain, confused, with blurry vision and without muscle tone or control. She laid there on the floor and wasn't aware of how much or how little time had passed. She passed into and out of consciousness and was extremely disoriented.

Gradually she stopped crying and started trying to think. She had to get out of here. Was she late for work? What day was this? Where was "here"? And her clothes; where were her clothes? She didn't like being naked. Oh god, how had she ended up here? Why wouldn't her mind or body work? What was wrong with her? She wanted to go home. How could she find her way home? This was what a hangover felt like? This wasn't what she remembered studying about hangovers in school. Hangovers didn't look like this on TV. All of her various injuries hurt, a lot. Owwwwww.

"Think about it later. Just get out of here, now. Get out of here. Get up find your clothes and get out of here." she told herself. Isabella tried to stand up, it was difficult and it took a long time. She used the toilet, wall and sink to help her stand upright. She was so dizzy and her muscles wouldn't do what she wanted them to do. She stood there for a while because she was so unsteady, the room was spinning. She started struggling to walk back into the bedroom to find her clothes, but she was weak and fell into the doorway and banged her head, raising a bump on her forehead. Crying and staggering at the same time, she suddenly stopped, stood there like a statue and stared.

There was an old man in the bed. How had she not seen him before? He was sprawled across the bed with his arms out. A sheet covered his private area and the top of his legs, but the rest of him was naked. No. No! NO! NO! NO! OH MY GOD! I didn't! Nooooo… nooooo, I didn't.

She continued to quietly cry and moan; still disoriented and weak from the drugs that she didn't know were in her body. The naked old man stirred a little. That got her to move!


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks to the people who have read, favored and/or followed my story. I appreciate your kindness. Hang in there everyone, only a couple more chapters about the effects of roofies and then we change to the interactions between House and Isabella. I bet that will be…interesting.

Three: Isabella Starts to Come Around

Isabella found her clothes amongst those scattered around the room and awkwardly picked them up while trying to keep her balance. She used the furniture and walls for support to stumble and stagger into the living room and away from the stranger sleeping in the bed. Her purse was on the floor of the living room. She dressed as quickly as she was able to and stumbled outside. Still weak and unsteady, she sat on the front steps. Dizzy, she sat there a little longer She may have dozed off and on. She needed to find out where she was and how to get to somewhere she knew. Her thinking was starting to clear slightly, but was still more disoriented than not.

She looked and smelled like a drugged out homeless person. She felt weak, sick, overwhelmed, and unable to help herself. Her head, elbow and knee hurt where she had banged them. Her head was splitting and she still felt nauseated from her hangover. Her vagina was painful. Nothing felt real, except the pain. She didn't even feel like herself. She didn't feel like she was in her body. Her head felt like it was floating somewhere. Time wasn't real but time passed.

Isabella's mind was a jumble of disconnected thoughts. She couldn't believe that she didn't know what day this was. She didn't know how much time she had lost after sipping her beer at the bar. Hours, days? She didn't know how long she had spent in that apartment. Where was she? She looked around and recognized nothing. Isabella did not believe that she had actually gone home with and stayed with a strange man.

"I don't believe that I did that! I just don't believe it! How could I do something so stupid?"

She would never do something like that! Ever! That wasn't who she was. She was responsible, the good girl, the smart kid. She was the person who was in charge, helped people; she was the one with all the answers. She was **always** in control. How could she have done something so stupid? She'd lost her virginity to a stranger and she didn't even remember? How could she not remember? How could she not remember THAT? Isabella took deep breaths, trying not to cry again.

She was such a mess, she thought; her head was thrown back, her mouth was open in distress, her eyes were scrunched closed and her face was the definition of misery. Her breath came in short, sharp bursts. There were no tears on her face, but she was overwhelmed by everything that had happened and still under the influence of the drugs that had been slipped into her beer the night before. Isabella was in pain and confused and she was sobbing on the inside.

After a while the sobbing slowly diminished. Isabella struggled to regain her normal control. She fought back at the confusion and disorientation. She fought back against her out of control body. The drugs still had a gigantic effect on her, but she used all of her tremendously strong self-will and determination to try to find a way out of this. She had to think, she thought; although she couldn't think straight, she kept trying.

Her mind started spinning confusedly again. She worried that she was late for work, or had she missed days at work and school? She had worked in the lab for six years and had never once been late; never once missed a day. Had they noticed her absence yet? She didn't want anyone at work to know what had happened, what she had done. She was so ashamed, so stupid, and she didn't know what to do. How long had she been gone?

"I hate myself. I wish I could just disappear." she sniffed. She was supposed to graduate in a few days. Had she missed her graduation? She had finals, had she missed those? Was she still graduating or had she messed that up? She was so stupid.

She tried to concentrate, make a plan, tried to gain her control back. Her mind wandered and she did her best to pull it back again.

"I've got to get out of here and find something familiar so I can find my way home. I can think about all this later. There's plenty of time to think about this later. That man in there could wake up any minute and come out here and find me. I need to leave. I can think later. How long have I been sitting here? It was almost dawn when I came out here. The sky is getting light now, but it's still very early. I have to go find the bus." She was relieved that she still had her purse. All her ID's, keys, bus pass, hair brush and some money were in her purse. She was grateful she hadn't lost it.

As time went by Isabella realized there were no people on the street. It was early but shouldn't there be people going to work? Why were there no people? She needed to ask someone directions to a bus stop but there was no one to ask. She sat there a little longer. A woman finally walked by, holding herself stiffly upright, disapproval of Isabella oozing from every fiber of her being. She gave the stinky, messy person on the steps plenty of room.

"Excuse me, can you tell me if there is a bus stop near here?" Isabella asked, her words were slurred, it was difficult to talk.

The woman on the sidewalk looked like she would walk right by, pretending not to hear; but she had a change of heart, or maybe it was a change in conscience. She was dressed up; it seemed like she had a self-image she needed to maintain for herself. The woman continued to stand as far away from Isabella as she could and still be on the sidewalk. She pointed up the street condemning Isabella with her attitude and posture.

"Go two blocks, take a right and walk two more blocks. There is a bus stop there." Sidewalk woman hurried away. She had done her duty and had helped; she was such a good person. Not many people would have helped that bum. Not many people would have stopped. She congratulated herself.

Isabella pulled her phone out of her purse to check the time and date, but her vision was too blurry and she wasn't able to see the little numbers.

Even though Isabella's vision was too blurry to see the little numbers on her phone, she was able to see well enough to get herself to the bus stop.

Where should she go? She had no place to go this time of day, and she looked, felt and smelled terrible. What could she do? Where could she go? There was her best friend, Danny, but his girlfriend and their 3.5 children would be in their tiny apartment; besides, she didn't want anyone to see her like this. She wanted to be alone with her shame. There was work. She could take a shower and change into clean clothes there, but she didn't want anyone to see her like this. She was so ashamed. She just wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

The bus came. The driver gave her an anxious look, but decided to let her pass. One of his sons had a drug problem and was on the streets. The bus driver hoped that someone would be kind to his son. Was his son still alive? Would he ever see his "little" boy again? The bus driver always felt a sense of dread; awake or asleep, he felt dread; never knowing when he would hear that knock on the door, never knowing when he would receive that phone call about his beloved son.

He had no other passengers this early on a Sunday, anyway. The woman didn't look violent, just hung over, drugged out and homeless. Hell he'd been hung over before, lots of time. If he was kind to this woman then maybe someone, somewhere would be kind to his son. He kept an eye on her from the rear view mirror.

Isabella got off the bus one stop before work. Thank goodness she recognized the place. She went into the supermarket bathroom and brushed her hair and cleaned up as well as she could with wet paper towels and soap from one of those dispensers that you pushed to get the soap. She brushed her teeth and gums with her brand new toothbrush and toothpaste. She still looked and felt sick, but she looked and smelled better than she had earlier. Her mouth no longer had the taste of vomit. That was worth something. She took stock: the nausea wasn't quite as strong as it had been, headache was still bad. Her brain was working a little bit better.

She bought a small package of crackers to settle her stomach. While in the checkout line she noticed that there were a few people in dress up clothes talking about some pastor. She glanced at the Sunday paper; oh, it was Sunday. Her birthday was on Saturday and this was Sunday. She lost only a few hours, not days. Relief flooded through her at that thought.

Isabella was the only employee who worked in her department on Sunday. Thank goodness! Something was going her way. She could go into work, shower, do her hair, get into scrubs and do her work. No one would know what she had done last night, no one would know how stupid she had been, and no one would know that she was so late for work. She hadn't missed any school or tests and she hadn't missed her graduation. It would be ok. She was exhausted but she could take a nap after she finished her work. Everything was going to be ok. She was even starting to feel just a little better; walk a little better, she felt a little more in control of herself. She would be ok. She told herself that everything would be ok. She kept telling herself that everything would be ok, that things would get back to normal. Well…as normal as possible, considering…Everything would be OK


	4. Chapter 4

Thank you to my readers, who have read, favored and/or followed my story. Here are two more chapters. Hope you enjoy them.

Four: What the Hell did I do Last Night?

House woke mid-morning feeling like he had imbibed in too much alcohol and mixed it with too many Vicodin the night before. He hadn't awakened feeling this bad since he was released from prison. With his eyes closed, he reached over and snagged his pill bottle, thumbed off the cap and poured two pills into his hand. He promptly dry swallowed both pills. He then poured another two pills into his hand and dry swallowed them, too. He massaged his thigh for a while, until he was able to walk.

House was much larger and had more muscle mass than his forgotten "date" of last night. He had all the same symptoms that she did but to a lesser degree. He didn't understand why he was experiencing muscle weakness and loss of muscle control in addition to all the other symptoms of over drinking. He had never had a hangover quite like this: and he had experienced a lot of hangovers. It was weird.

Even with his cane it was much more difficult than normal to limp into the bathroom. There was vomit and piss on the floor. It was disgusting. He liked to keep his home clean. He didn't remember making those messes. When he finished in the bathroom, he limped back into the bedroom and collapsed onto his bed and promptly fell back to sleep.

Several hours later he woke up again, still feeling very hung over. "What the hell? I only had a couple of drinks." Then he realized that he had experienced a black out and didn't remember most of last night and today until right now. That was scary because he hadn't been abusing alcohol or Vicodin (much) the same way he did when he used to have black outs. He would have been more concerned and given it more thought if he hadn't felt like crap. He felt really out of it, his mind was fuzzy.

He got some clean underpants and a t-shirt from his drawers and sat down on the bed to put them on, throwing the bed covers to the other side of the bed as he sat down. He happened to glance over and noticed the blood that was dried on his bottom sheet.

"What the hell?" Contrary to appearances and reputation, House was a very considerate lover. He didn't physically hurt the women he was with. He took his time with foreplay and used lubricant when needed and he always made sure that the woman had a pleasant and comfortable sex experience with him. He hadn't made anyone bleed since Betty Lou and he lost their virginity to each other, so long ago. He hadn't known any better back then. "Maybe she started her period." He told himself of the unknown woman whose dried blood decorated his sheet.

He didn't remember leaving the bar last night, nor bringing anyone home. Hell, he didn't even remember coming home. He didn't remember how he got home. He didn't remember having sex and he didn't remember anything about the woman whose sweaty scent he now smelled on the pillowcase. "Am I hallucinating? Am I losing my mind, again? Why can't I remember? Do I need to go back to Mayfield? I didn't drink that much did I? I didn't drink that much. I shouldn't feel this bad. What is wrong with me?" House tried not to think about it, but he was more worried than he was willing to admit to himself.

"My god this place stinks." The stench of vomit, urine, alcohol and sweat made him want to vomit. He could barely breathe. The apartment stank and his bedding stank. The clothes that were crumpled on the floor stank. He stank.

He called Lady and asked her if she could come over an extra day, today, and clean his apartment and wash his bedding. He told her that he had a sick friend over yesterday. She liked to go to church in the morning, but it was now afternoon. She said she had some family thing in the evening, but she could come over for three hours.

When he got off the phone with Lady, House rolled the sheets into a ball so the blood wasn't visible. People who knew him would be surprised that he was embarrassed. He didn't want to stay in the smelly, vomit filled apartment, but he was too sick and had no energy to go anywhere else. He went into the living room planning to flop down on the couch and watch something, but there was more vomit on the floor.

In his entire apartment there was no clean place. He opened the windows to air the place out. He was embarrassed to have Lady over with the place like this, but he felt like crap and couldn't' clean up first and didn't feel that he had a choice. He needed to go back to sleep but couldn't in this stench filled apartment.

Even though he was feeling very sick, he went to the motel that was around the corner and went back to sleep. He was so sleepy, his head hurt and his muscles were still weak. He needed more sleep.

As he fell asleep he told himself that when he woke up he would take a shower, his apartment would be clean and his hang over would be done. He'd go home and everything would be back to normal, whatever normal was.

Things did go back to normal: for a little while.

 _Roofie back ground for the story is finished. Now we get to the relationship between House and his Accidental Teenage Bride. We'll learn more about House and Isabella's backgrounds and previous lives as we go along. House and Isabella will be dealing with the aftermath of being drugged for a long time, but the roofie background is finished._


	5. Chapter 5

Five: Isabella Receives Unwanted News!

Isabella had changed a lot in the week since her birthday. Normally she was friendly, outgoing, and pleasant, very accomplished, hard working and helpful. Now she was quiet and subdued; she preferred to be alone. Everything had changed for her that lost night. She no longer knew who she was. She no longer felt like herself. She just kept putting one foot in front of the other and went on with her life, as best as she could. Routine kept her sane. Studying for finals kept her mind busy, and that helped. Sleep was difficult; thoughts kept floating around and around in her mind, and the nightmares wouldn't stop. She couldn't quite admit to herself that she was depressed.

It was Saturday, laundry day. Every week Isabella took her dirty clothes from her work locker and went to the laundry mat two bus stops away. Isabella was sorting her clothes and checking pockets on one of the large tables. There was a folded paper in the pocket of her jeans. It was good, heavy paper. She wondered what that was and how it got there. Isabella unfolded the paper and collapsed into one of the plastic chairs that were lined up in the middle of the room. Her shoulders were rounded in, her head was down, and tears were in her eyes. "This could not be happening. This COULD NOT BE HAPPENING." Isabella said to herself. She wanted to curl up into a little ball and die. Isabella was so depressed that she couldn't even cry. In one week her nice, organized, well planned, controlled life had gone to hell.

Between classes on Monday Isabella went to the county courthouse. She couldn't go earlier because the court house was closed on weekends. All weekend Isabella had a big empty hole in the pit of her twisted stomach. She couldn't eat. She tried to study but she could think and worry of nothing other than that piece of paper and what that piece of paper meant. She went into work and did her work without thinking about what she was doing. The work was routine and she could perform her duties in her sleep.

She found the office of vital records, filled out the forms, paid the money and received the dreaded answer. The legal form she had found in her jeans pocket last Saturday was real. It was legal and it had been registered at the court house by the justice of the peace earlier that day. She was legally married; her signature was on the paper. It was messy, but the signature belonged to her. She was legally married to a stranger. This was happening. Isabella felt numb, anesthetized. She felt like she was imploding into herself.

The other name on the certificate was Gregory House. Was that the old man she woke up with? Was she married to that old man? She wasn't married to that old man; was she? NO! Was he her husband? If not, then who was Gregory House? Who was she married to? The name sounded vaguely familiar but she couldn't place it. Isabella felt like she was living in a cloud. None of this was real. She would wake up soon and realize that it was all just a bad dream.

She went back to class and then she went to work, still in her foggy cloud. The next day she did some research between classes. Isabella sometimes researched law issues for Bruce, a lawyer friend of hers. She enjoyed doing the research, learning about the law and she enjoyed helping her friend. She had an ID badge that gave her access to use the law library. Bruce signed for her to get it so she could do the law research he needed her to do.

Today the research Isabella did was personal. When finished with her research Isabella felt a little bit more hopeful.

In New Jersey an annulment could be granted for several reasons, including incapacity.

 **Annulment of Marriage in NJ Based on Incapacity: A marriage can be annulled, if a spouse lacks the mental ability or capacity to understand that they are married.** Incapacity often occurs when one-or both of the spouses are severely inebriated and decide to get married on a whim.

Isabella had been so under the influence when she married that she couldn't even remember getting married or anything else for that matter. That should be ample grounds for an annulment. It would be like the marriage never happened. She smiled to herself. Maybe this nightmare would end. She could get her life back and things would go back to normal.

Then Isabella slumped into her chair. Before any of that could happen she had to talk to her "husband"; the stranger she was married to. "I don't want to." she thought.

Her mind started spinning. She knew nothing about this man she was married to. Was he abusive? Would he hurt her? What was he like? Would he want the annulment as much as she did? Would he agree? Isabella had left the apartment while the man was still asleep. Was he worried about his new bride? Was he an alcoholic? What would he say when she told him about wanting an annulment? How would he react when she told him? Was he already married? Maybe he remembered the wedding and would already know. Would he want the annulment too? Maybe he wanted to be married, for some weird, unknown reason. She didn't want to talk to him. She was scared. Oh god. She hoped he'd just go along with it. Probably he didn't want to be married, either. Maybe his wife had been out of town that night. Isabella's chest felt like it was being squeezed. There was no reason he would want to be married to a stranger any more than she did, was there? She didn't know him so she couldn't know how his mind worked. Her mind was spinning and spinning with different scenarios.

There was no way around it. She had to talk to her "husband". That was the only way she would know if he was willing to request an annulment with her, or if she would have to get a lawyer to get her out of this: and get out of this she would. She was going to get her life back.


	6. Chapter 6

And now Isabella's and House: Six: House Receives Unwanted News!

Lady had done a good job on the apartment. Everything was nice and clean and sweet smelling. There was a lot of clutter, but House liked a lot of clutter, and there were empty take out boxes on the coffee table that he hadn't cleaned up, yet. He loved the sanctuary that was his home. He bought each piece of his furniture and each of his books and every collectable and kitchen tool one at a time. Each purchase was special to him. His home was important to him.

House and his team had just finished up with one patient and didn't have a new patient, yet. He had worked late the night before so he had decided to come home early today, a mid-week break. He played his piano for a while, then a video game. The video game was more fun to play when Wilson was there so he watched some TV instead. Now he was just hanging out, stretched out on his couch reading a medical journal while enjoying some music. House was content.

House heard a soft rapping on his door. "Use your key, Wilson. I'm not getting up." He heard more rapping on his door and sighed. He set the open journal on his coffee table and climbed up out of his soft couch then he walked/hopped without his cane to the front door, thinking that Wilson must have his hands full. There was a kid at the door. It was a girl, a pretty girl.

"Isn't it a little early for Girl Scout cookies?"

The girl looked nervous and a little scared. Nervous and scared made House's sarcastic side come out to play. He stood there glaring at her. She took a deep breath to give herself courage. This was the man she had shared a bed with two and a half weeks ago. This was the stranger who was probably her husband. She looked at the button on his shirt so she wouldn't have to look at his face. This man she was married to was big and scary…and old.

"You're Gregory House?"

He looked at her with tilted head. "Who are you and what do you want?"

The girl took a quick glance at the front door to the apartment building; she really didn't want to be here. She wished she could just run out that door and never come back.

"I need to talk to you."

House didn't move to let her come in. "So talk."

Uncertainty was clear on Isabella's face. What did she do now? She didn't want to discuss this in the hallway. She didn't WANT to discuss this at all. House was tired of standing there.

"My leg hurts, tell me what you want or go away."

Isabella chewed on her bottom lip. "Can we talk inside?"

House examined the girl with his eyes. Starting at her head and down to her toes and back up to her head again he studied her. House had a nightmare or two where a kid showed up at his door claiming to be his biological kid. This kid didn't look anything like him, but she was becoming a puzzle.

He stepped back and opened the door, allowing her to enter his kingdom. She walked a few feet inside the door and stopped to briefly look around. She hadn't had a chance to notice anything the last time she was here. It was nice here, comfortable, but Isabella was anything but comfortable.

House, "What's your name?" He watched as her eyes turned to his.

"I'm Isabella" she said and hesitated, uncertain about how to proceed. There was no easy way; just say it she told herself.

"I'm umm I'm….your wife."

She just stood there for a second and then took a paper out of her bag and handed it to him.

It was a marriage certificate.

House stood there, in shock and completely taken by surprise and for once he had no words, he was totally speechless. He stared at the kid, unwilling to understand what she had just said. He looked down at the paper she was holding out to him and then back up at her. The girl was about to draw the piece of paper back when House woke up and took it from her. He grabbed his cane and started pacing around his living room while he read the certificate of marriage. It looked legit. How could he be married and not know it? Married to a kid? This was a joke. Wilson was playing a prank on him. This was a practical joke. He fake laughed.

"Ha! Good one. Did Wilson put you up to this?"

The only Wilson she knew was a doctor at the hospital and she had no idea why he would put her up to anything. She stared at House and gave him a quiet "No".

"OK kid. Good joke, time to end it now." House almost pleaded.

Isabella defensively said, "It's not a joke and I don't like it anymore than you do. I went to the county court house and researched this. This is a legal certificate of marriage and we are legally married."

House stared at her some more, getting worried. "I would remember getting married. I would remember getting married to a child!" He pointed at her.

Isabella was under a great deal of stress. She had been in a poor mental state for the last week and a half, her patience was wearing thin, and she was getting angry.

Isabella barked at him, "This isn't a joke! What kind of jackass would joke about this? It's not funny! I don't remember it either. I had a half a glass of beer and woke up here, naked, bleeding, sick and hung over. What did you put in my drink, you son of a bitch?" She balled up her fists and was trying so hard not to let him see her cry.

House blinked. " **Nothing!** I put nothing in your drink! I don't even know who you are!" He yelled. "I can get some any time I want; I don't have to drug little girls."

Isabella was breathing hard and so was House. Neither knew what to say. Isabella was afraid of the angry man. Angry men hurt people. They stood and stared at each other.

House suddenly gasped remembering about the lost night when he had blacked out and awoken to blood on his bottom sheet and vomit all over his apartment and a hangover to beat all hangovers. He snatched the marriage certificate from the coffee table where he had earlier dropped it. He checked the date and limped over to his desk to look at the calendar. His heart sunk to his feet. "Shit!" The date on the certificate was the night he couldn't remember. He drummed his fingers on his desk.

Without turning around he asked, "How old are you?" He said softly, his head tilted up with his chin to one side, his eyes looking up at the ceiling. He dreaded the answer.

She replied, "I'm 18. We got married on my birthday."

House stared out into space, his face scrunch up and he held his head back. His right hand was white from tightly clutching his cane.

"How old are you?" Isabella whispered, dreading the answer.

House gave a non funny laugh, "I'm 53. I'm 53 years old and apparently I'm married to a child." He raised his eyebrows and tilted his head to the other side.

Isabella was angry. She was **not** a child and she didn't want to be married to him either. "I am an adult and apparently I'm married to an old man." She stood solidly and angrily on both feet and crossed her arms in front of her chest, bravely not backing down.

House turned around and looked at his child bride. "I don't remember that night." House said softly while he screwed up his face once more and scratched his right eyebrow with his right thumb nail. "I woke up here with a hangover, but it was worse than any hangover I've ever had before, and I've had plenty of hangovers. There was a woman here but she left before I got up. There was blood on my sheets. I'm pretty sure that I didn't drink enough to have that kind of a hangover and to black out."

"It sounds like someone drugged your drink, too." She said thoughtfully.

When she had first started waking up the morning after her birthday she thought she was drunk and hung-over. She had never been drunk before and couldn't tell that her symptoms were much more severe than a hangover. She also hadn't been thinking clearly because of the drugs she had been given. When she thought about it later it was clear to her that she had been roofied. She thought that the man she woke up with must have been responsible. Apparently he was roofied, too. Who would do that to random strangers? Change their lives in ways he couldn't know, just for a laugh? How could anyone be that stupid? How could anyone be that mean?

"Yeah, it makes it sense." House said thinking. He twisted his chin to one side, "So now what?"

His leg hurt so he sat down. Isabella looked around. She wanted to sit down, too, but didn't want to sit on the couch so close to this stranger. She saw a weird chair like thing and sat up straight on the seat of that thingy with her legs to one side.

She started talking softly, letting her eyes flint around the room so she didn't have to look at her husband. "After I verified that the certificate was real and legal I went to the law library to do some research. Since we were both "under the influence" when we got married we should be able to easily get an annulment. It will be like this never happened. Everything goes back to normal."

"You bled on my sheets." he said.

"You took my virginity." she snapped back, thinking he was being an idiotic moron.

"How is that supposed to go back to normal?" House said with regret in his voice and he raised his eyebrows in a question.

Isabella looked sadly at House said softly, "Yeah".

House, looking at his shoes, said "Sorry."

"Yeah." she looked down at her shoes, too.

"How do we fix this? The legal part, how do we fix that?" House took a deep breath and looked up at his wife.

Isabella chewed on her bottom lip, "We just have to file papers with the court asking for an annulment. We have to tell them the reason why we want the annulment. It should be easy to get the annulment. We've only been married for one and a half weeks and haven't lived together or co-mingled funds. There is a $200 filing fee. We can split it if you want to.

"I'll take care of the fee. Are you going to study pre-law?"

"No. At one time I thought about going into law but I will graduate from medical school this Saturday."

"You are 18 years old?" eyebrows slightly raised.

"Yes."

"You do legal research?

"Yes."

"AND you graduate from medical school this week?"

"I know you are very old, but is there something wrong with your hearing? You keep repeating everything I already said."

"Loud music. You're an 18 year old doctor who does legal research?" Everyone lies he thought.

Annoyed, Isabella rolled her eyes and decided to get back on topic. "I have a friend who is a lawyer, Bruce Brown. He doesn't practice family law, but he should be fine to handle this for us. We could both use him or would you rather get your own lawyer?"

"Sounds like one lawyer should be ok for this." He hesitated, didn't want to ask the question he knew he had to ask, "Isabella, are you on birth control?"

Isabella's face turned white. Her eyes opened wide. "No, no, I never needed it. Don't you use condoms?" She said with a sinking feeling. She had lost her virginity exactly mid cycle. Oh god, oh god, would this horror show never end? For christ's sake! She was almost a doctor! How could she not have thought of that? Was she stupid? Had the drugs completely taken her brain away? What was wrong with her? No she couldn't be pregnant, she couldn't be. Nope, no way! But she knew that she could be. She barely heard her husband's response.

House said, "Yes, every time; but I don't remember that night. I don't remember anything about that night. I don't know if we used one or not."

"I have to go." Isabella said and picked up her bag and ran out of the apartment.

House sat there feeling miserable. How could he have had sex with a little kid, a teenager, and not even know? How could he marry her and not know? At 18 she was legal; barely, but for christ's sake, he was 53! He was way too old for her. He was 35 years older! Cameron had been too young for him, and she was several years older than his "wife" and he had been several years younger back then. He realized that he didn't even know his "wife's" full name and didn't know where to find her. He didn't have her phone number, didn't know where she worked, where she attended med school or where she lived.

"Shit!" How fucked up was he? His dad had been right. He was a screw up. House needed a drink.


	7. Chapter 7

Thanks for all the PM's, favors and follows. I'm feeling the luuuuv! J A few more chapters for you. Hope you enjoy them.

Seven: Isabella Thinks About the Good Things in Her Life

Isabella went back to work after leaving House's apartment. Everyone was gone for the night. She went to the lounge and sat on her couch. Her mind was numb.

She got up and cleaned the rats' cages and gave them clean food and water, weighted them and documented their weight on the computer program that she had designed for the lab six years ago. She did the rest of her work without really thinking about what she was doing. She had done this job for so long she could do it on automatic pilot.

She didn't want to think about all the bad things that had happened to her so she made up her mind to think about the good things.

This was an entry level job and she was almost a doctor. Her boss talked to her a couple of months ago and asked what she planned to do when she graduated. He told her that she had done a terrific job and he was very proud of everything she had accomplished, she was an outstanding employee, one of the best he ever had. He would be happy to give her an excellent reference for whatever position she wanted to apply for but she had outgrown this job and it was time for her to find something that met her present qualifications.

She told him that she wasn't applying for any of the residency programs. She had acted in a Broadway show when she was four years old and her director/producer was going to open a new production of "West Side Story" later in the summer. He wanted her for the role of Maria. She was looking forward to getting back on stage, but was even happier about being with her old dancing/singing/acting friends. She was excited.

Isabella had always liked her boss, Dr Evan Steward. He was a good boss and he had taught her so much. He showed her things that weren't part of her job because she was interested in and wanted to learn everything and Isabella was a quick study.

Dr Evan, as he liked to be called, taught her how to make and read slides, run DNA samples to see if any of her rats were related, helped her prepare to do her research project and suggested that she take classes in research and grant writing before she started her research study. He even let her perform autopsies and surgeries on the rats. He was right there with her, talking her through the procedures. Isabella didn't have the right credentials to do this work on her own but after instructing her while having her watch a few then he watched and let her perform the autopsy and surgeries on a few of the rats under his direct supervision.

This job had given her the much needed stability, self-confidence and acceptance that she so desperately needed after running away from the last horrible foster home. She had grown up in this lab. She had grown up in this hospital! She was going to miss everything, especially her co-workers, the board and the children on the Pediatric Oncology floor where she volunteered. Those kids were like family. She learned how good she was with children. She would miss the board meetings where she was allowed to sit in as a non-voting visitor and learn all about hospital business. She was going to miss this place so much, but she had outgrown this job a long time ago. It was long past time to move on. She was going to be back on Broadway!

Isabella had lived with her director/producer, Winston Levi, for two weeks every summer vacations since she was 14. She lived with him for over a year when she was four. She had her own room in his apartment and he wanted her to move back in and live with him full time like she had when she was four. Isabella wanted to finish medical school. He wasn't a father figure, even though he had taken care of her. He was more of a boss/old friend.

As soon as she graduated from medical school this Saturday, she would spend two weeks in New York with Winston and other old friends for her yearly vacation and then return to Princeton for two weeks to finish her work on the First Annual Pediatric Oncology Conference, before moving back to New York to live.

Isabella had been instrumental in instigating, organizing, planning and bringing the conference to completion. She had overcome many obstacles and the problems that always came up with a big project like this one. It was a huge job and she was in charge. Its success or failure rested on her shoulders.

She had a lot of resource people she could go to with questions and experienced volunteers who were a big help with various necessary tasks. She delegated some work to the board and some to the doctors. She gave their opinions and suggestions careful consideration and Isabella listened conscientiously, but this was her project. She was in charge.

Many people scoffed at such a young person having the responsibility of being the person in charge of such a large and brand new project; but the board members were well acquainted with her work and they knew that Isabella was already well established, accomplished and experienced in similar projects. She had a good, knowledgeable background and six years of gradually increasing responsibility for other large projects. She was also excellent at managing people, a good trait that would be an excellent asset for this huge and important job.

When she met with the head of oncology, Dr Wilson, the head of the hospital Dr. Foreman, and the hospital board she had done her homework as she had been taught. She had background information, schedules of other conferences so they wouldn't pick a conflicting date, financial reports, a list of possible speakers, and many other important and necessary reports. She talked non-stop for two hours and presented her ideas and plans in an excellent and well planned performance. She answered every question thoroughly and without looking at reference material. The board gave her a standing ovation.

Dr Foreman thanked her on behalf of the board and praised her presentation. He promised that the board would study the reports that she had prepared and discuss the project she had presented and give her project serious consideration.

When she left the room the board talked about the excellent ideas she had presented and also their thoughts about her being able to carry out a project much bigger than anything she had completed on her own before.

They spent two months studying and discussing and arguing about every little thing before deciding, based on her history, presentation and planning to give her permission for her conference. They also decided to closely monitor her plans, and ordered regular and frequent progress reports to the board. She, Dr Wilson and Dr Foreman would work as equal team members. As it turned out Isabella did nearly all the work, because it was her baby, and the Dr's were busy. They sometimes made suggestions; she would change a few things and get everything approved. They had worked for one and a half years on this conference and it was one month from being completed.

Isabella had first started with little helping roles for donor lunches and gained experience with each new project or job she was entrusted with. She was given more and more responsibilities as she successfully completed each assigned task. Eventually Isabella was placed in charge of complete parts of whatever current projects were in process. She often was put in charge of people much older than herself and many of these people held very important positions.

Dr Cuddy taught her how to work and talk with these people, how to get them to agree with you and then win them to your side. Dr Cuddy taught Isabella how to delegate and to make people think that your ideas were theirs. She had been a great mentor and they had worked closely on many projects.

Isabella still missed her. Dr Cuddy no longer felt safe and had to leave town and her job when someone she used to date drove his car into her home.

When Dr. Cuddy left, Isabella continued to work with the board, but Dr. Foreman was her boss, not her mentor. Maybe she didn't need a mentor anymore; she was a regular part of the work force, now. Maybe he didn't see her as needing extra help; maybe she didn't.


	8. Chapter 8

As promised, lots of healing angst in this chapter. Don't worry; the next chapter will be more fun.

Eight: Isabella has a Long Overdue Break Down

Isabella's mind came back to the present day; her mind would no longer let her avoid her problems by thinking/day dreaming about the past. Her pleasant journey down memory lane ended and she couldn't get it back.

But now, Isabella thought, all of her plans for the future were gone. Everything had changed. Life as she knew it was over. She bought a pregnancy test on the way home and peed on the stick.

She couldn't play her role on Broadway. Whoever heard of a pregnant Maria? Her grades, work history and summer internships were all top of the class. Everyone she ever worked under would give her great references. She could have had any residency she wanted, but now it was too late; all the good residencies were taken and she hadn't even applied to one. She hadn't even written a resume.

She couldn't act on Broadway and she didn't have a job. After this week she wouldn't have a place to live. She couldn't live in the lab lounge once she no longer worked here. What was she going to do?

Isabella couldn't eat; there had been a big lump in her stomach ever since she left her "husband's" apartment and took the pregnancy test. She took a shower to try to relax; got into the clean scrubs she used for pajamas, brushed her teeth, took her bedding from her locker and made her bed on the couch. She lay down but couldn't sleep. Her mind wouldn't let her.

One single pee on a stick test and her whole world changed. Everything she had worked so hard for and planned so long for wasn't going to happen. Isabella felt alone, scared, depressed and adrift. She was going to have a baby. She was alone and scared and she was going to have a baby. She had no say in it, but she was a mother. No matter what else happened in her life, she was a mother. A person was growing inside her. She was lost and forlorn and she had no idea what she would do.

She'd just have to take care of herself like she always had. Now she had another person to take care of, too. She was afraid to be a mother. She was scared of the whole pregnancy/ birth process, but she was terrified of something else. What if she was like her own biological mother? She didn't want to be like that. She didn't want to hurt her child. She didn't know what to do. Her child wouldn't grow up in foster homes, but biological and adoptive home could be dangerous, too. What was best for her little baby? What was safest? She didn't know.

Isabella couldn't hold her misery in any more and she had a good cry. She sat on the edge of the couch, bent at the hips, arms crossed on her thighs and her head on her arms and cried hard, body racking sobs. The last week and a half had been so difficult. Isabella had experienced so much stress, trauma and uncertainly that she was totally overwhelmed and exhausted. She had lived through many difficult times before, but this was different.

This was her fault, there was no one else to blame but herself. She never should have gone to that bar, never should have ordered that stupid beer. She was so stupid. She cried a while longer.

Isabella's head snapped up as a thought occurred to her, NO! NO! It was NOT her fault, she realized. It was not her fault. It was the fault of the asshole who drugged her drink. She didn't do anything wrong. She was old enough to have a beer in a bar. Some asshole had totally changed her life and for what? So he could have a laugh at other people's expense?

She hated him, she hated that asshole. She hoped he died a horrible death. He deserved to have his life ruined, not her. It was his fault. She didn't do anything wrong. She wanted to rip him apart with her bare hands. She wanted very bad things to happen to him. She wanted him to be raped and see how he liked being in pain and bleeding from having his body ripped and torn. She wanted him to be roofied. She wanted him to know how it felt to be totally helpless and out of control, unable to think or move, have his muscles not work and have his head ache so badly he wanted to die. She wanted him to know how it feels to not be able to control his muscles; not to be able to walk and to be hurt and bruised when he fell because of it. She wanted him to wake up in a strange bed beside a stranger and not know where he was. She wanted him to experience being on a street and not knowing where he was or how to get home. She wanted him to find out he was going to have a child he didn't want and had not planned and wasn't ready for. She wanted him to feel how it felt to wake up married to a stranger. She wanted his life ruined. She wanted him to go to prison. This asshole belonged in prison! In prison! It was entirely his fault. Everything bad that had happened to her in the last week and a half was his fault and be **belonged** in prison. She hated him so much. She hated feeling helpless and not in control of her body and her life. She hoped he would be in an accident and have his body broken and torn apart, but have to live with a body that didn't work and be in terrible pain for the rest of his life. God, she hated him so much. She couldn't think of anything bad enough for him. Nothing was bad enough for him!

Isabella felt an incredible rage grow. It was a white hot rage and it radiated out from her iner-most self, from the inside out. She had held in every bad thing that had happened to her for so long, ever since she was a baby she held in all the bad stuff, and it was impossible for her to hold it in any longer. She could no longer control her emotions.

She jumped up off the couch and picked up one of her heavy text books and hurled it across the room as hard and fast as she could. It hit the wall and bounced off. She let out a deep, wounded scream as she threw it. She repeated throwing each of her books against the wall until there were no more to throw. She threw magazines and pens and anything else she could get her hands on. She ripped a thick phone book into tiny pieces, and then she stood up straight, her hand held at her sides in tight fists and she threw her head back, scrunched her eyes closed, opened her mouth wide and howled and wailed and cried and screamed, a loud and horrible, mournful, heart wrenching, heart breaking, and wordless howl. She wailed and cried and screamed some more.

Her wordless wails finally turned into sobbing with words.

"Why? Why? Why is everything happening to me? Why has my whole life sucked? I'm a good person. I don't deserve all this. Why?" Isabella screamed and cried at the ceiling. "I haven't done anything wrong. I haven't done **anything** wronggggg." She carried on crying at all the injustices and abuse and abandonments she had suffered. She wailed about being ripped from family after family. She screamed about all the deaths of all the people who had died and who she had loved. She sobbed about being born addicted to heroin because she was born to a heroin whore, and having to go through withdrawal as a premature and sick newborn. She cried about surviving three heart attacks in her first few days of life because of the heroin withdrawal. She sobbed about being kidnapped twice by her birthmother and being sold to strange men so her birthmother could buy drugs for herself. She sobbed about being thrown against the wall by one of the men her mother sold her to and she cried about being in the hospital with a severe, life threatening head injury and a broken arm because of that. She cried about being held down so her birth mother could shoot heroin into her veins while Isabella screamed nooooooooooooooo. She cried because she hated her bio-mother so much and wished her dead. She cried about watching her first foster mother screaming in pain and dying in her arms from a car accident. She cried about finding another loved foster mother dead on the floor bleeding from a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. She screamed about being placed in a horrible, abusive foster home and from the agony of having no one believe what was happening in that home. She cried for the belt scars on her back. She cried about the friends she had lost to cancer and to AIDS. She cried about being placed in a children's prison, in juvenile hall because there was no other place for her; and **she had not done one god damn thing wrong**. She did nothing wrong. She didn't deserve any of this. She hadn't done anything wrong.

She curled up into a ball in an easy chair. Not for the first time in her life, she wanted to die. She cried until she could no longer cry. She cried about all these things and all the other shit she had lived through. She cried about the most recent shit. "I just want to die. I just want to die. I'm tired of all this shit and I just want to die."

Ultimately she left the chair and fell onto the couch, exhausted and emotionally and physically drained, too tired to be able to sustain her rage any longer. She was sick with all the grief and sorrow, torment and hate and deep pain she had expended.

She tried to comfort herself; all along in that work place lounge that had been her home for six years. She rocked herself back and forth, her eyes shutting out the world. She was too weak to pull the blanket over herself. She was now crying silently, breath uneven with crying.

She would graduate on Saturday and Danny, his pregnant girlfriend, Irene, and their three children would be there for her. She felt a little better just knowing she would see them soon. She would talk to Danny tomorrow, and tell him everything that had happened to her and then she wouldn't feel quite so alone. She nodded her head yes, even though no one was there to see. She would tell him about being married and pregnant and about being roofied and about losing her job on Broadway and about being too late for a residency. She would tell him everything and then she wouldn't be alone.

After graduation she would go to New York for her vacation. She would spend time with Winston and her other old friends. She would think and plan when she was there. She would come back here and finish her conference. She had plans, she had things to do. Everything would be ok she told herself.

Isabella fell into a deep, worn out, weary and drained, exhausted sleep and amazingly she slept well all night, hiccuping and sobbing in her sleep from her hard cry.

When Isabella woke the next morning she felt strangely calm and peaceful, almost floating, she felt so light. Maybe her breakdown had been healing; therapeutic and cathartic. She felt weirdly purified, in an odd way that she didn't really understand.


	9. Chapter 9

Hereeee's Lucas.

Nine: House Learns About Isabella

It was Monday, nearly a week after Isabella ran out of his apartment, and House still hadn't heard from Isabella. He didn't want to admit it to himself but he was guilty as hell and he was worried. She was just a kid and he had messed up her life.

House had gone to the vital records department at the county court house and bought a certified copy of his marriage certificate and was able to learn Isabella's last name from the certificate. Isabella Tobin. His wife's name was Isabella Tobin. His child bride was Isabella Tobin, Isabella Tobin….House?

A computer search turned up a research article by a woman who had the same name, but surely his wife was too young to have a published paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, or… maybe not. She said she was graduating from medical school in a few days. Maybe she already graduated. An 18 year old doctor, huh. Everybody lies.

Lucas walked into House's office and slumped into a chair.

"Hey House."

"Hey Lucas"

After talking and catching up for a few minutes House told Lucas what he wanted without telling him that the woman he wanted Lucas to spy on was his wife. House gave Lucas the little information he knew about Isabella; it wasn't much, but Lucas had ways of learning things.

Lucas returned the next afternoon quite excited about all the things he had learned. He had accomplished a lot in very little time. "Who is this girl, House? She is really amazing, totally incredible." he gushed.

"What did you find out?"

"You won't believe how much information I uncovered in **just one day**." Lucas bragged.

"Yea, yea, what do you have?" House said rolling his hand, wanting Lucas to get to the point.

"Isabella Tobin graduated from medical school last Saturday at the tender age of 18. She finished high school with high honors when she was only 10 years old and was the class valedictorian.

Ten year old Isabella and some law students took the school district to court to force them to send her to college because of a federal law that says students have a right to a free public education in the least restrictive and most appropriate environment until the age of 18.

Some states added the provision that the requirement ended when the child graduated from high school, but New Jersey did not have that addition at the time. It was changed after Isabella's law suit.

She graduated from a Catholic high school and the public school district wanted her to repeat high school, saying that she could take classes that had not been offered in her small high school and that would meet their requirement to educate her. Isabella argued that she had already graduated from high school and should not have to repeat an education that she had already mastered. Repeating high school after graduating did not meet the definition of "free, appropriate education in the least restrictive environment."

The judge agreed that Isabella had already met the requirements of graduating from high school, had earned her high school diploma, passed her college entrance exams with flying colors and did not have to repeat high school.

The judge had some serious reservations about a child that young attending college with adults, but there was no legal reason to prevent Isabella from attending college and in this particular case, college was probably the best solution for this child. Because of her superior intellect there was no reasonable and appropriate alternative.

The school district was required to pay for her college education because that was the most appropriate and least restrictive educational environment for a person with her qualifications and she had not yet reached the age of 18.

The district applied for financial aid in her name and because of her grades and test scores the entire cost of her college education was covered by grants, scholarships and private donations, so the district paid nothing.

She graduated from college at age 14 with a double major in pre-med and health care administration and a minor in finance. She almost had enough credits for a second minor in research methods. As in high school, she graduated first in her college class and was again valedictorian. She started medical school the next fall when she was still 14."

"Who the hell is this kid, House? She's waaaaaay smarter than you." Lucas asked while opening a package of gum and putting a slice in his mouth.

House was leaning back in his chair playing with his ball.

House was quietly thinking, "What else did you learn?"

Lucas looked at House for a moment and then continued.

"She is a former foster kid. As soon as she became emancipated when she turned 14 she organized the kids who were or had been in her last foster home to testify against the foster parents from that home. They also testified against the case worker who was supposed to check up on the kids and the home and make sure that everything and everyone was OK.

The district attorney, the governor, the state fraud unit and the police department near the home all received anonymous copies of the restricted records of the foster parents going back twenty years; which children they had in their care and the dates the kids were there, payments received for caring for the children, food stamp and Medicaid records. Also included were reports the case worker had written about home visits, which children she had seen and how the children were doing.

The anonymous records came with allegations of some pretty seriously bad abuse and also alleged that the foster parents were collecting payment and benefits for children who had run away many years ago because of the abuse they had suffered. It was also alleged that the case worker lied about seeing many of the children she reported seeing in the home.

Along with the hacked computer records was a message that if the issues weren't addressed within one week that copies of the all the records and allegations would be sent to the major local and national news programs along with the statement that the records had been forwarded to the DA, police department, the fraud unit and the governor and that nothing had been done to correct the abusive, deplorable and dangerous situation that children had been placed in by social services.

House, those records were hacked from government agencies' computers and were supposed to be private. Isabella was suspected of being the hacker but they couldn't prove anything because the records were hacked from a public library and the library deletes everything from the computers used by their customers every night at midnight. Isabella frequently used that particular library.

Isabella contacted and organized the kids who were former foster kids in that home. Many of those kids are now adults. The ones who are still alive all testified. Three of the kids had already committed suicide. The kids currently in the home also testified.

Maybe because of the threat to go to the media, or maybe because he thought that the allegations were serious and needed to be investigated, the District Attorney worked with police detectives and the state fraud unit to get court orders gaining access to all of the records of the foster parents and the case worker.

They talked to the kids and ordered medical examinations before deciding to criminally charge the two foster parents for child abuse resulting in bodily harm, fraud for continuing to collect payment and food stamps for children who had run away, sending false reports to a government agency and failure to report the missing children in their care.

The case worker was charged with filing false reports, failure to carry out her duties in a reasonable manner, failure to protect children under her care and failure to report missing children.

The court records on the case are sealed because of the age of the victims, but both foster parents are serving 15 to 20 years and all their belonging were seized to pay the government back. The case worker was sentenced to five years in prison and can never work with children again. She'll probably never get a job in her field again. Social Services changed the way supervision and reporting of children in their care is carried out due to this case.

House, this one incredible little kid was the driving force for all of this and she was only 14 years old at the time."Lucas was impressed.

House was playing with a rubber band. "Huh, did you find out anything else?"

Lucas was disappointed by the lack of response, "House, you only gave me this case yesterday and I've already given you all this information!"

"Uh huh, that's gooood. What else did you find out?"

Lucas smiled, "Isabella volunteers on the pediatric oncology floor in this hospital and she is working with the patients to put on a talent show for the First Annual Pediatric Oncology Conference next month. She is working with Wilson and Foreman to organize the conference and it's reported that she has a big part in it."

House looked up. Now he knew how to find his missing child bride. "Uh huh. What else?"

"House, you're killing me, here! OK House, I have one more piece of information. She works in one of the research labs here in the hospital basement. She has worked there six years. The interesting thing is…she was only 12 years old when she started working here; BUT kids aren't allowed to work and can't get work papers until they are 14."

House was interested. His wife worked and volunteered in this hospital. "Which lab does she work in?"

"She works in room B049."

"What else?"

" **HOUSE**! I get all this great and interesting information for you in a little more than 24 hours and all I get is what else? What else do you want to know? Do you want me to keep looking for information on her? Do you want me to keep spying on a kid who is probably going to take over the world before her 21st birthday?" Lucas whined.

House sat quietly thinking, he looked at the thick file sitting in front of him. "No, that's good, Lucas. Thanks."

Lucas was disappointed that House seem preoccupied and wasn't as excited as Lucas thought he should be.

The two men went out for a beer, and then they both went home. House had a lot to think about.

Thank you all for hanging with me and reading all nine chapters. There is plenty more to come. I hope that you continue on this journey with House and Isabella.

Thank you to each of you who have review, favored and or follow **House and His Accidental Teenage Bride**. I am glad that you enjoy my work. J


	10. Chapter 10

Are you ready for some House hijinks?

Ten: House Looks for Isabella

House was hiding in the hospital basement, around the corner from the research lab that was in room B049. There was a corner mirror near the ceiling so he could see who entered and who left the department. House had been waiting for two hours. It had been a week since he had seen Isabella and he was worried. She had been upset when she left his apartment. It was five o'clock. He would wait another half hour for Isabella. He popped two more pills and dry swallowed them. He played with his cane, and a rubber band. He pretended to play the piano on his left leg. Isabella didn't show up. Most research employees worked until 3 or 5 pm. He waited until nearly 6pm before going home.

The next day House waited outside of the Pediatric Oncology floor. All the pediatric units were locked down for the safety of the patients. Everyone had to be buzzed into the units or had to have an employee ID card with a special access code on the metal strip on the back of the badge. House didn't have an access badge, and had no reason to be buzzed in. There was a comfortable waiting area just outside the ward and House made himself at home on the couch. He was able to see the TV as well as the entrance to the ward. Most employees started work at 7 am, so House arrived early. He didn't know what days his wife worked as a volunteer. Isabella never showed up.

House stalked the lab and the Pediatrics unit for several days with no luck. He finally hacked into the work schedules of the two departments and saw that she wasn't scheduled to work in either place. Awww, why didn't he check before he spent so many hours stalking her work places? Maybe she took vacation after graduation.

House hacked into the human resources computer records. Lucas hadn't found an address for Isabella when he made his report. Isabella listed a post office box for a mailing address in her current records, but House found an address listed on her six year old application for work. Maybe she still lived there. He made a note of the address.

While he was already in her file, House snooped around. Her ID from her employment application listed her age as 14, but that was 6 years ago and that would make her 20 years old, now. Her ID picture was cute. No way was that little girl 14. She had to be 12 when she started working here like Lucas had said. But if everyone thought she was 20 House would go along with it. Isabella had told him that she just had her 18th birthday. Being married to a 20 year old sounded just slightly better and less creepy than being married to a teenager. The false ID with the application was very well done. Why did a 12 year old child want to work? Did it have something to do with the jailed foster parents? Seriously, couldn't human resources tell that she was just a little kid when they hired her? Her application listed "college student" under current position. Maybe that was why they didn't do a better job checking her age. How many 12 year old college students were there? Isabella had listed Danny Phelps, brother, as her emergency contact. They shared an address, but not a last name.

House closed out the computer and grabbed his cane and backpack. He was going hunting.

The neighborhood wasn't the best, it wasn't even good. There were old cars parked at the curbs, a few were up on blocks. His car fit right in. This was a large, rundown apartment complex. There were several identical buildings. The "lawns" were dirt with some weeds. House found the right building; the one marked with a large "D", found a parking space and approached the building. There was no elevator and House had to make his way to the second floor. He stopped to let his leg settle down. Apartment 204 was at the end of the hall. House heard a baby crying inside the apartment.

When he knocked a woman who was about eight months pregnant answered the door. She had a child who looked to be about 2 years old riding on her left hip. The crying came from a second child who was sitting on the floor with a third child. The oldest child looked no more than 3 years old, if that. Four children in three years! Someone had good swimmers. A man was reading a book to two of the babies and he held one of the children on his lap and gently rubbed the back of the child who was sitting beside him, crying. Everyone was on the floor because there was no furniture in the room, only sleeping bags, pillows and a few blankets. Clothing was placed in stacked laundry bins in the corner of what should have been a small dining area, but there was no furniture in that little room, either. One laundry bin held clean diapers. The only furniture in the apartment was an old, small, tube TV which was connected to rabbit ears like House's family had used when he was a kid. There were a few toys scattered around, and several children's library books stacked neatly on the kitchen counter. Clean dishes and pots rested on a kitchen towel, beside the kitchen sink.

"I'm looking for Isabella Tobin, is she here?" House asked, peeking in and looking around the small apartment.

The man put the child he was holding on the floor, stood up and held out his hand, "Hi I'm Danny. This is my girlfriend, Irene. You must be Gregory House, Isabella's husband." he said.

House was taken by surprise. He hadn't told anyone about his surprise marriage and he hadn't thought about Isabella telling anyone, either. He wondered how many people knew about his fuck up. "Yes. I'm House; is Isabella here?"

"It's nice to meet you. No, she's not here, she's on vacation." Danny said and put his offered hand into his pocket. He didn't know what to think about this man who had changed his friend's life. "Her friend gave her a vacation for a graduation gift. Would you like something to drink? We have milk, water and apple juice." His speech was a little slow.

"No, thank you. Do you know when Isabella will be back? Does she…does she live here?" House tilted his head to one side. House hoped the answer was no.

Danny replied, "Not so much anymore. She just stays once in a while now we have the kids. There's not much room. I think she'll be home in a week or so."

Now that House was inside the apartment he could see that it contained only the tiny kitchen and eating area, the room he stood in with the sleeping bags on the floor and a bathroom with the door open. Two adults, three kids and one more on the way lived in a space smaller than a one car garage. The entire apartment was about the size of his living room.

"You know, I was supposed to call her, but I lost her number. Do you happen to have it?" House lied.

"Sure." The woman said. She wattled into the kitchen to get a pen out of a drawer. She tore the corner off a diaper box, wrote the number on it and handed the piece of cardboard to House. "We're almost ready to eat. Would you l like to stay for supper? There's plenty."

The food did smell good, but House only wanted to leave the small, crowded space. They must all eat on the floor, too. "Maybe another time, I have an appointment I need to keep." he lied.

 **"** It was good to meet you. Come again, come over anytime." Danny invited. Everyone came to the door to see him off.

"Thanks." said House as he started back down the stairs. He stopped and turned around. "Isabella's address was on the same paper as her phone number, the paper I lost. Do you have her address?"

Both adults looked confused. "Isabella doesn't have an address, she uses this one." said Danny.

"You said she didn't stay here often. Where does she live when she's not here?"

"She did stay at the hospital."

"Yes, she works at the hospital; but where does she live when she's not working?" House thought they were a little slow.

Danny said, "She used to stay at work. She said it's easier since she just had to go back in the morning."

"She used to stay at work?" House picked up on the past tense.

Danny knew Isabella hadn't told Gregory about the baby, yet. Apparently Gregory House also didn't know that Isabella used to live in the lounge in the lab at work. She didn't work there anymore, so she didn't have a place, right now; well she had this place this was her home and she was welcome, but it was full. They could all move a little closer together and make room.

Gregory House also didn't know about Isabella's vacation or anything else for that matter. It wasn't his place to spill the beans. Gregory House wasn't getting any more information from him. It sounded like House didn't know Isabella at all. "She's on vacation."

"Huh." House thought, Danny was hiding something. House's mind had already started working on the puzzle. He struggled down the stairs, walked out to his car and drove back to work. If Isabella was on vacation she was probably safe, but he wonder if she had taken the pregnancy test. The thought of a child left him with surprisingly conflicting emotions. He tried the phone number that Danny's girlfriend had given him. His phone call went unanswered and he didn't leave a message.

He had received a text while he was at Isabella's brother's place; they had a new case.


	11. Chapter 11

We are 1/3 of the way to the finish of our story! I appreciate all the lovely reviews, follows and favorites. If you have enjoyed the story so far please consider writing a review. Back to the story.

Eleven: House Learns About the Baby

House had a visitor sitting on the front steps waiting for him when he arrived home. Isabella had been waiting and was about to leave when he finally arrived. She stood up when House walked up. She was feeling stronger after being with her friends for two weeks and much more in control.

"Hi"

"Hi"

They walked into the building. House stalled and stopped to get his mail and then he unlocked his door and let Isabella enter his apartment. She seemed tense but better than the last time he saw her. He was relieved that she looked OK, but he was nervous to hear what she had to say

"Do you want something to drink?"

"I'd like some water."

They each sat where they had sat two weeks ago. Isabella drank her water, delaying what she had to do.

House sat, drumming his fingers on his left thigh. "So…"

"Um. I don't think the annulment is going to work for us." Isabella said.

"Oh? Why not?"

Isabella breathed out a heavy sigh, saying nothing for a few moments. "I'm pregnant."

House let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. "Ah" He didn't know what to say. His head tilted back a little and he scrubbed his face with his hand.

They sat in silence both thinking their own thoughts. At last House said, "What do you want to do?"

Isabella thought for a few minutes. I want to wake up and discover that all this is just a bad dream. I want this to never have happened.

What she said was, "Well… I um well; this child was conceived after we were married. It would be better to get a divorce instead of an annulment."

"So you want to keep it?"

"I haven't gotten that far. Maybe adoption would be best for the baby, but I'm not ready to make that decision right now. I'm still trying to process all this right now. There's a **lot** to think about and process. There's plenty of time to decide before the baby is born."

House tried to talk her into an abortion. "You do have a choice, you know. You don't have to have this baby, it wasn't planned. You are just starting out in your career. You are young, you'll have other babies."

It took a very short time for Isabella to comprehend that they weren't both talking about the same thing. "Are you talking about killing this child? Do you want to kill your son or your daughter? "

House sighed, "It's really not a baby, not yet. It's just a group of cells, some tissue." Ooooh, big mistake!

"If it's not a baby then I guess we don't need to do anything about it do we Gregory House? There's nothing to worry about. Nothing will happen. We'll just go on our merry way and nothing will change. What are you if not cells and tissue, Gregory House? Huh? What is an elephant, Gregory House? Huh? You don't want to be a father so you just want to kill your child? I don't want to be a mother, either. I never planned to be a mother or a wife; especially when I'm 18. If we just get rid of you I won't have to worry about being a wife, Gregory House. Let's just kill you and that will take care of 50% of my problems, Gregory House."

Gregory House was impressed! And a little bit scared.

Isabella grabbed her things and left the apartment slamming the door hard on the way out. Without realizing it Isabella was healing and she was taking back her power, for herself and her child.

She went back to the motel where she was staying and tried to calm down. She no longer had her job in the lab, so she couldn't sleep there. Her apartment was filled to overflowing with Danny, Irene and their family, so she was staying here. She really didn't mind the motel, it was fine. It was a dump. She would like a better kitchen, though. It was just temporary. She tried to think about anything other than what just happened. It didn't work.

She was married to a horrid man who wanted to kill her child. She had to get that divorce. She didn't want her child anywhere near that man.

After Isabella left, Gregory House lay on his couch and stared at the ceiling, a couple of extra Vicodin kept a drink of scotch company in his stomach. He felt completely drained and exhausted. He couldn't sleep, thoughts kept circling in his brain. What the hell was he going to do? He was 53 years old. He never wanted kids. He didn't want a kid of his to grow up the way he did. John House wasn't his bio dad, but House had lived with him for 18 years. Some of John House must have rubbed off and infected him with John House's special brand of poison. He didn't want to screw up a kid of his. He didn't want to hurt a kid. Why were women the only ones with the right to choose? Why didn't men have a choice to not be dads? He'd ruined Isabella's life. He didn't want to ruin another kid's life too. He was such a fuck up. His dad was right about that. What the hell was he going to do with a kid? Two kids; his wife and his kid.

Fanfiction doesn't allow for page breaks, if they did I would put a page break here.

This is Gregory House' and Isabella's story; it is about them and the way they deal with what was done to them and the results of what was done to them. They have their own views about abortion and **their** views are told in this story.

This is **not** a story about abortion. It occupies only a very few, short paragraphs in a **33 chapter** , nearly **54,000 word** novel.

This is **not** a forum to debate abortion. If you enjoy that, please find an appropriate page on the internet. You may agree with House or you may agree with Isabella or you may have a different view of abortion. You are entitled to your opinion. We are not going to argue this unsolvable issue here.

You may want to focus on the last important paragraph; why doesn't Gregory House want to be a father?


	12. Chapter 12

Twelve: A New Alliance

Isabella was eating lunch in the hospital cafeteria the following Tuesday. She was here to work with the children on their performances for the talent show they were putting on for the entertainment part of the Oncology conference. They had been working on their parts for a long time and their performances were good; but today she was going to start having them practice their parts in the auditorium so they would be comfortable on show night. She also needed to decide on what order the children would perform.

She was sitting quietly enjoying her lunch when her husband came over and sat down beside her while saying, "Is this seat taken?"

What an idiot. Couldn't he see that it wasn't taken? Well…she needed to talk to the asshole anyway.

She was silent. He came over to her. Let him start the conversation.

"How are you?" he said.

"OK. What do you want, Gregory House?" she asked irritably with eyebrows raised.

He stared at the ceiling trying to be patient.

Did he think some answer was written up there on the ceiling, Isabella asked herself?

"I just wanted to check and see if you were ok."

"Why wouldn't I be OK?" Isabella snarled. "It's not like I've had any difficult changes in my life." Why was she being so rude, such a bitch? That wasn't like her. Well, he deserved it anyway.

"You were pretty angry, the last time I saw you."

"Do you think I don't have good reason to be angry? You want to kill my child."

He scrubbed at his face and changed the subject. "I met your brother."

"I know. Why did you go there and how did you know how to find him? Are you spying on me?" Isabella stared directly into his eyes, her chin jutted forward a little.

"I was worried about you and I couldn't find you." House reasoned.

"So? You don't need to worry about me and I don't want you spying on me or my friends. Danny isn't my brother he is my best friend. You didn't answer the question. How did you know who he is and where he lives?"

House wasn't going to touch that question with a ten foot pole.

"Have you decided on the annulment vs. divorce?" He hoped he had changed the subject to a safer topic.

Isabella knew what he was doing by changing the subject, but the divorce was what she needed to talk to him about.

"Yes, divorce. Our child was conceived in wedlock, an annulment would change that. I talked to my friend, Bruce Brown; he's the lawyer I told you about. It should still be a simple matter for the same reasons an annulment would; we have never lived together, we keep our finances separate and we haven't been married very long. The only difference is that we have to wait 18 months for the divorce to become final. Are you planning to marry anyone else in the next 18 months?" she challenged.

House shook his head no.

"Are you already married to someone else?"

"No." House said softly. He was seeing a different side of his wife, all business. He wasn't sure what to make of it. Maybe it was better than all the depression and helplessness. He wasn't sure. She seemed more in control of herself and more in control of the situation.

Isabella continued, "We didn't sign a pre-nuptial agreement but we can sign an agreement in the lawyer's office that will do the same thing. You keep what's your, I keep what is mine. There is no marital property. You can keep your retirement and so forth. Neither of us request spousal support."

House thought that was very generous. He wondered what the catch was, why didn't she want support? "Why don't you want any support?"

"I don't need it. I can take care of myself." Isabella said.

"What residency did you take? Is it in town?"

House asked his eyebrows rose slightly as he shifted in his chair. It seemed that he was changing the subject, but he wasn't. He wanted to know how she would be able to take care of herself and a child and where she was taking his kid. Residency positions didn't pay well. She was just a kid herself and House had serious doubts and misgivings about a kid raising a kid. He didn't want a kid, but he didn't want it neglected or abused, either.

Isabella hesitated. She wasn't sure she wanted him knowing her business. "Why are you asking?"

"You don't want my support. I want to know how you intend to take care of yourself and a child, pay for childcare and diapers without help and on a resident's salary. I asked about the location of your job because I have a right to know where you are taking the kid." He said seriously.

Isabella was a little intimidated, "I'm on vacation right now. I'm staying here for now. If I move out of town in the future, I'll let you know." Isabella avoided the question.

He was not at all happy with her evasive answer, but decided to come back to it later. "What about the fetus?"

Isabella hesitated and frowned at the term fetus; the baby was already a person to her and she didn't like hearing her child referred to as a "fetus". What kind of an asshole called his child a fetus? She guessed the same kind of asshole who wanted to kill his child. She decided to let it go for now, but she wasn't happy about it. Not at all.

"You will be ordered by the court to pay child support. I don't want it but the law says that the support belongs to the child, and I am not legally allowed to refuse it. You can put it into a bank account for your child's education, if you want. New Jersey doesn't require a child custody arrangement to be on file to grant a divorce. I'm guessing you don't care about that." Isabella gave him an easy out.

"You guessed wrong. If you intend to go through with this pregnancy, and it seems that you do intend to do that, I will checkup on the kid's welfare so yes I am interested in the custody arrangement. Since you are talking about child support I am surmising that you have ruled out adoption and are going to keep it." House surprised himself. He did not want a child, but seriously, he was not going to completely abandon his kid to the care of another child.

"Isabella looked puzzled. She thought before speaking. "You want to kill this child, why would you want to share custody of a child you don't want and whom you want to kill? Do you think I would leave him alone with you?"

"Discussing options for cells that are a few weeks old is not the same thing as killing a living child. If you have this kid, I will check on it." House laid down the law while pointing his chin at Isabella.

Isabella again felt intimidated by this big scary man. Huh, Isabella thought. She didn't know what to do or think. She didn't think this man wanted anything to do with his child or with her, but it turned out that he did. She didn't understand his change of heart. Why was he doing this, she puzzled? Maybe he was just being difficult; maybe he would change his mind again. She was afraid to argue with him or confront him and decided to change the subject and think about this later. There was plenty of time to work this out before the baby was born, she decided, and she wanted to file for divorce as soon as possible. She returned to that, for now. She didn't want to be married to him for one second longer than necessary.

"About the divorce," she said subdued, her shoulders were hunched forward, "we need to sign the paperwork so it can be filed. The longer we wait to sign and file, the longer it will take before we are free. Are you still OK with both of us using the same lawyer? He has the papers ready to sign."

"Yep. When do you want to do it?" House said agreeably.

Isabella thought of her schedule, she had practice with the kids this afternoon and a meeting with the board this evening that would run late; tomorrow was another rehearsal and more meetings before the conference. "I can go early tomorrow, or later in the afternoon. Would either of those times work for you?"

House had a difficult time getting up early in the morning because it took time to tame the monster in his thigh. "What time in the afternoon?"

Isabella called the law office; they had a cancellation at 3:30 that would work for both of them.

"Do you want a ride there?" House offered.

Isabella wasn't sure she wanted to be in a car with this man who was still mostly a big, scary stranger, but it would be easier and quicker than taking the bus. They were married after all… "Yes," she reluctantly accepted, "that would be nice. Where and what time should I meet you?" As a former abused child she was still learning to keep herself safe and didn't always make good choices in this area.

"Let's meet in the lobby at three. That should give us plenty of time." House said. He wanted to do more digging about Isabella's residency job and where it was, but this was the first time they were getting along reasonably well, and the first time she didn't leave him in a huff. For some unknown reason he didn't want to ruin that. He could dig for answers later.

Isabella, "OK, see you then. I have to go meet some people, now."

She went to gather her young performers and take them to rehearsal. They were wild and full of energy because they got to leave their floor and get away from their rooms and the boring routines. One little girl was weak and had to come down in a wagon.

They had a good practice. Isabella decided on the order of the performances and she had the kids run through the entire show twice. They needed a little more practice to learn which stage entrance to use and to get better at finding their marks, but their talents were already well rehearsed, so that wasn't a worry. All their hard work would come together on the night of the show. It always did.

Isabella returned the kids to their nurses and their rooms and decided to have an early dinner before her meeting with the board. She would be there late and should eat something. They had a lot to go over.

The conference was one and a half weeks away and they needed to tie up as many loose ends as possible tonight. This was going to be a big meeting with well over two hundred people in attendance. The board members would all be there in addition to all the volunteers, maintenance and security personal, and all the other people who had important roles would be there to hear their last minute instructions and to ask any questions they may have

Isabella could have given instructions to the heads of the various departments and have them pass the information on to their employees; but as she had learned from her mentor Dr Cuddy, it is important that each person know how important their contribution was. Inviting everyone to the large meeting with all the board members, shaking hands, listening, providing food, giving respect to all the contributions were all very important ways to give recognition and were well worth the extra work.

House saw her in the cafeteria again and decided that he would also have an early dinner. He bought his own meal, how lame was that? Isabella saw him coming her way. She wanted some peace and quiet to eat her meal and to go over her plans for tonight one more time, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen. Well she would just eat and then excuse herself.

House sat down without asking. He nodded at Isabella.

Isabella thought that the head nodding thing was a lame thing to do but she was in a good mood after the practice section; the kids always made her happy, so she tried to be polite and not lose her temper. He did seem to bring out her temper.

"Hi."

"Hi."

House tried to think of something to say that wouldn't upset the peace. He really wasn't good at small talk and was uncomfortable trying to start the conversation. "How was your meeting?"

Isabella said, holding up her end of the conversation, "Good, very good. The kids on the oncology floor practiced their talent show for the first time on the stage where they'll be performing for the oncology conference in less than two weeks. They need a little more practice but things went very well for the first time."

"You're helping with that?" House fished for information. He already knew from Lucas's report that she was doing a lot more than helping.

"Yes, I like to stay busy." Isabella evaded.

"Good idea." House contributed, frantically searching his mind for something to say.

"How was your day?" Isabella said lamely.

"Good. We finished the case we were working on. We saved another life." House said just as lamely. He finished his meal, "See you tomorrow at three."

"OK"

Well, House thought, we had two conversations today and didn't kill each other and no one ran out of the room. He guessed that was progress. He wasted some time before the meeting. He wanted to see how his little teenage wife managed the big meeting.

When the auditorium was almost full, House slid into a chair in the back of the room and slumped down so he wouldn't be so tall and noticeable. He was going to spy on his wife again.


	13. Chapter 13

Thirteen: Isabella Shines

House was impressed. Isabella was the star of the show. For nearly three hours she introduced, instructed, praised, answered questions, joked, laughed, and made people feel good about themselves and the important part they played in making this conference a success. Her timing was impeccable. She made eye contact and talked to people in all parts of the room; she included everyone. She had every person eating out of her hand. Everybody loved her. The august and imposing members of the board respected her and treated her as an equal as they took instructions from her, asked questions of her and accepted her answers as law. She moved around the stage and room like she owned the place, because she did, she owned the room and every person in it. She looked great. She really was incredible.

House smiled to himself and he told himself that he was just getting some answers. He couldn't admit it to himself, but he felt proud. He didn't understand it either. Yep, he was just getting answers, finding pieces of the puzzle. He couldn't stop smiling that tiny, little smile of his.

The board members sat on the stage behind long tables that were covered with white table cloths. Wilson's gaze flittered around the room and suddenly his face lit up with a big smile. He spotted House. Wilson was so pleased and surprised to see House here, supporting him. House never before had come to give Wilson support for one of his projects. House never attended meetings; he just didn't "do" meetings. Wilson couldn't believe House was actually here, behaving himself and paying attention to the meeting. Wilson couldn't wipe the smile off his face; he did manage to dim it a little, so people wouldn't question him about it. Wilson didn't notice that House never took his eyes off Isabella.

Isabella completed the meeting and received thanks from the board. She received a standing ovation from every person there, including House!

Isabella and the board slowly made their way to the lobby where the refreshments were served. They all stopped along the way to shake hands and talk to the employees and continued to do so all the way to the lobby. This was the public relations part of the evening; just as important as what had come before.

House stood partially hidden behind a fake potted plant watching every move Isabella made. He couldn't take his eyes off her. She was so poised and in control of everything. He suddenly felt his heart squeeze. Right this minute, Isabella reminded him of someone and he felt that Cuddy shaped hole in his chest overwhelming him with emptiness and longing as it did every time he thought of her. His spirit dampened and he decided to go home.

Wilson was trying to join House as fast as he could but House was on the other side of the room and Wilson kept being stopped to shake hands and talk to people along the way.

Wilson finally made it over to House just as House decided he wanted to leave. Wilson walked up to House and just stood there beside him for a minute. House didn't leave.

"You came!" Wilson said, jiggling the keys in his pocket.

"How could you tell?" House snarked, but he was glad that Wilson was beside him.

The two men stood together, comfortable with the quiet between them. Wilson was thirsty.

"Do you want a drink, House?" Wilson asked.

"What kind of idiotic question is that?" House asked.

Wilson got them each a drink.

The lobby gradually cleared out and there were only the board members, Isabella and House left. Some of the board members wondered why House was there, but he was behaving himself for once, and the board members went on to other thoughts.

It was time to end this thing and go home. It was late and everyone was tired. They all talked amongst themselves and congratulated themselves and each other and especially Isabella for a job well done. They walked out together saying "Good night, see you tomorrow." House hung back a little, Wilson hung back with him.

Environmental services employees were moving into the area to clean the place so it would be ready for business tomorrow. The doors were locked until the morning. The ER entrance was the only one open this time of night.

Wilson said, "Thanks for coming, House. Do you want to go for a drink?" It was nearly midnight but Wilson wasn't tired.

"Naw, it's late, I think I'll go home. Night Wilson."

"Night House."

They walked to their cars. House drove out of the parking lot and saw Isabella standing at the bus stop. It was the middle of the night; she wasn't safe taking the bus, House worried. Ohhhh no. Doesn't she have a car? Do the buses even run in the middle of the night? He drove up to the bus stop.

"Want a ride home?" House offered. They had glanced at each other several times in the lobby, but hadn't spoken. He guessed that neither of them was ready to make any announcements and they avoided each other so there would be no rumors. Well that didn't make sense; they had two meals together in front of everyone.

Isabella hesitated, she wasn't sure this was a good idea. She had often taken the bus at night, but she never liked doing so, it made her feel a little uncomfortable; she wasn't sure she would feel any more comfortable riding with her husband. Well…she was planning to ride with him tomorrow, no later today, to their lawyer's office.

"Sure." She said, getting into his car. Well, if he killed her and left her body in a ditch somewhere she wouldn't have to worry about anything anymore, she mused.

They rode together in uncomfortable quiet; Isabella giving directions.

"So, that was quite a meeting." House finally found his voice.

"Yes." Isabella replied.

House tried to think of something more to say, "You helped with that, huh?"

"Yes, a little." Isabella said, also almost at a loss for words.

"You did gooood." House gave her high praise.

"Thanks" Isabella replied with a small grin. "This is my stop."

"You live in a motel?" House asked in surprised.

"It's only temporary. I need to find a new place." Isabella answered, not wanting to give away too much. "Thanks for the ride."

"You're welcome. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow. Three o'clock."

"Yeah." House waited until Isabella was inside the building before driving off.


	14. Chapter 14

Fourteen: House and Isabella go to the Lawyer

House was busy the next day; he had a new critical patient. His team worked all day running tests and they had several DDX's throughout the day but they still had no idea what was wrong with this man. It was a few minutes before 3 o'clock when House turned his marker and white board over to Chase and said, "You're in charge, Chase. Call me **only** if it's an emergency."

" **This** is an emergency, House; the patient is dying and we don't know why! Where are you going that is more important than this?" Chase said angrily.

"I have confidence you can handle it Chase. That is why I put you in charge." House smiled, picked up his back pack and headed for the door.

"House, come back here! Where are you going?" Chase said, nearly yelling at House.

"People to see, places to go, things to do; I'll call in for a report." House sang as he left.

He really did have confidence in Chase. Fellowships lasted between three and five years and then the young fellow was supposed to go out into the world and teach the even younger doctors. Chase had been his fellow for almost a decade, on and off. He was an excellent doctor, not as good as House of course, but an excellent doctor. He should have been out on his own years ago. Chase was well able and qualified to be in charge of his own Diagnostics Department and should be teaching his own fellows. House liked having him work for him, and apparently it satisfied Chase's needs as well; otherwise he would have moved on by now. They both seemed happy with the arraignment.

Taub had been here almost as long as Chase. He was also a good doctor and a good team member. House didn't want to lose him (he accused Wilson of not doing well losing people but House wasn't any better at that than Wilson). House didn't see Taub running his own Diagnostic Department, but he would be a good teacher to his own fellows. House didn't think that Taub would be with him much longer. He had two young daughters, now, and the hours they had to work for this job weren't a good choice for a man with partial custody of children. They worked crazy and often long hours. House realized that he would soon have a kid. How was that going to work? Well, he didn't plan on doing the daddy thing. Isabella would take care of the kid and all the kid things and he would only check up on them to make sure they were OK. No problem.

The two new fellows were babies and had a lot to learn. They would be with him for a long time yet. He hadn't really invested in them, not yet, not like his earlier teams. He hadn't known them very long. They had potential.

Isabella was waiting in the lobby. She stood up from her chair and walked over to House. They walked out the doors together. They hadn't told anyone about their marriage and baby, except for Danny, but they weren't being discrete, either. Isabella was going to start showing, at some point, and they would have to worry about what they would tell people about that later. Oh yeah, House thought, everyone loves her and not me. I'm a 53 year old man who married and impregnated a teenager everyone loves. Oh ya, the shit is going to hit the fan. Yep shit to fan.

House and Isabella walked to his car together in silence. Neither could think of anything to say. They were going to the lawyer's to start divorce proceedings for a marriage neither remembered and neither wanted. What was there to say? House had a new GPS in his old car, so he didn't need directions. The longer they sat there in silence the harder it was to start a conversation. Thank goodness the lawyer's office was only 15 minutes away.

They only had to wait a few minutes before their lawyer; Bruce Brown came out and personally escorted them back to his office. Isabella introduced the two men and for once House decided not to be a dweeb and shook the offered hand.

They sat down and Isabella and Bruce visited for a few minutes before getting down to business. House could see that they were old friends. Maybe this was one of the law students who had helped Isabella with her school law suit.

Bruce explained each piece of paper before having each of them sign it. House already had a divorce from Dominkia so he was familiar with the paperwork and Isabella had enough of a law background from doing research to help Bruce out that Bruce didn't need to answer many question, so the paper signing went quickly. They were finished in less than an hour. Isabella and Bruce talked about getting together soon, but didn't plan anything specific. They were soon back in House's car returning to work; House to his critical patient and Isabella to her meetings and rehearsal with the kids.

It seemed sad that a marriage could be ended so easily, even a marriage that wasn't a marriage. Bruce would have his people file the papers first thing in the morning and they would be legally separated as soon as that happened. In 18 months they would be divorced.


	15. Chapter 15

Fifteen: After the Conference, House and Isabella have Fun

The conference was over. There were still papers littering the floor. Isabella and the board and the spouses or partners of the board members relaxed at the large table, sharing a meal and congratulating each other on the very successful new conference. For some strange reason that no one understood, Dr. House had invited himself to the meal, even though he wasn't on the board and hadn't helped with the conference and never attended anything. He received some odd looks, but everyone was in such a good mood, they let it pass. He had taken the seat of honor to the right of his secret wife. Isabella received numerous kudos, hugs and praise. Everyone was happy.

The lectures, displays, classes, food and talent show were all first class and received high praise. Every time something came up, and things always came up at these things, Isabella was there and effortlessly put out all the fires. The talent show was well done and well received. The kids did a great job. Each child, or group of children, did their individual parts and then the finale showcased all the children singing songs, some also played instruments and some danced as well as sang. Isabella was gifted with roses and many, many hugs; from both her children and their parents, and some board members as well. House watched.

One by ones and two by twos the room cleared until only Foreman, Wilson, House and Isabella were left. They sat around some more, talking, joking, laughing and enjoying each other's company. No one wanted to end this night and go home alone.

Wilson suggested they all go for a drink, not knowing that Isabella couldn't drink because she was six weeks pregnant. House begged off pleading tiredness but really just wanted to drive Isabella safely home, he didn't want her taking the bus at night. Isabella said she needed to get home, no one but House knew she had nothing to go home to. Wilson and Foreman went out drinking together and took a taxi because they shouldn't drive in their condition, which was sure to get worse. House and Isabella made their way to the parking lot.

Wilson noticed that House and Isabella left together and he groaned to himself. He had also seen them eating together several times in the hospital cafeteria. House was way too old for 20 year Isabella and Wilson hoped that nothing would happen between them. He wondered at House's attraction to very young women.

In a few minutes House and Isabella arrived at the motel. Isabella was still high from her success and didn't want the evening to end yet. She invited House in for coffee. House was surprised and accepted.

The room was just a garden variety, low budget motel room. One queen size bed, dresser topped with a TV, a small fridge, microwave, coffee maker, paper cups, ice bucket, tiny table and two chairs, one easy chair. In other words, the usual motel room stuff.

House took the easy chair, his leg hurt; he took his pills. Isabella kicked her shoes off, her feet hurt, and started the coffee and then sat down in one of the small chairs that went with the small dining table.

They had been sharing a lot of meal together over the last week and a half and felt a little more comfortable with each other. They chatted, reliving the evening and enjoyed each other's company. The coffee was ready.

Isabella finally felt the let down that always comes after something that was worked for long and hard and was now successfully completed. The adrenaline was gone and she was suddenly very tired.

House could see the change in Isabella, but he didn't want to go home to his empty apartment. "Do you want to watch a movie?" He asked, trying to prolong the night.

"I'm pretty tired; it's been a busy few weeks. I should get some sleep."Isabella yawned and excused the yawn.

"You could rest on the bed and watch the movie." House suggested.

She wasn't really sure about that and she hesitated, thinking. Finally she decided and said, "OK… but don't touch me, OK if I fall asleep… don't touch me?" She bargained.

"No touching." House agreed, wondering what abuses she had suffered. He knew she ran away from an abusive foster home and he felt a weird pain in his chest. How could anyone hurt this little girl?

"You can touch me, if you want to." he joked, trying to lighten things up.

Isabella giggled! "No!"

House was surprised that she giggled, he never heard her giggle before and he enjoyed it. Usually he thought that women who giggled were stupid and were trying to recapture their lost youth, but Isabella had a cute giggle and she was still in her youth. It was a nice giggle and it made him happy. He smiled. Her reaction to his joking encouraged House.

"Do you want a back rub to help you sleep?" he teased, tentatively and in a joking, non-threatening tone.

"No!" she said back.

"Foot rub?"

"NO! Just start the movie you goof." she teased back.

House laughed out loud! He only felt free enough to do that with Wilson. Isabella liked his laugh.

"Do you have any snacks?" House asked.

"You just ate a huge meal, how can you possibly be hungry?"

"But Mom… I'm hungry." House whined and looked at her with puppy eyes.

Isabella scoffed and said, "Top right drawer or look in the fridge."

"Hay, there is only healthy stuff here. Don't you have anything good? Something not green and fresh?" House play whined again.

"If you are hungry, eat something." Isabella scolded and made herself as comfortable as she could on the bed with House in the same room.

"You're no fun. I'm going to order pizza, you want some?"

"Maybe."

"What do you like on it?"

"I like the veggie lovers."

"No meat?"

"I'm vegetarian."

"Nooooo. Not that." He pretended to whine. "OK, I'll order one veggie lovers and one meat lovers. I'll get a large soft drink, too. You want anything else?"House already knew that she was vegetarian. They had shared many meals and House noticed things like that.

"OK, I guess I am a little hungry, too. Do they have the donut like things with cinnamon?" The baby was making her hungry. She knew it was too early for that, but she was in a playful mood and so she blamed the baby.

House looked for a good movie that Isabella would like, while also dialing the phone. He was good at multitasking.

They enjoyed the movie, Isabella resting on the bed and House in the easy chair with his bad leg resting on another chair. They ate the pizza when it came and enjoyed the rest of the movie.

Isabella fell asleep. House noticed that she looked cold and he walked over to pick up a blanket and covered her. He was tired and wanted to lie down. Isabella was all curled up on one corner of the bed, she didn't take up much room; but he didn't want her to wake up and be scared with him beside her.

House picked up the two pillows that Isabella wasn't using and tried to make himself comfortable in the easy chair. He used the pillows to support his bad leg and propped it up on the other chair. He watched another movie and fell asleep in the middle of the second movie.


	16. Chapter 16

Thank you for all the lovely PM's, reviews, follows and favorites. Also, thanks to everyone who enjoys reading my story in private.

Sixteen: The Next Morning

Isabella woke first the next morning. She frowned at Gregory House who was still in her room. She quietly got up, picked out some clean clothes from her dresser and went into the bathroom to shower and get ready for the day. She locked the bathroom door and double checked to make sure it was locked.

Gregory House was still asleep when she finished. She wasn't sure what she should feel about him still being in her room. It was awkward and she wanted him to go home. She didn't know how to handle this. She wanted her room back. Isabella had lived on her own for a long time and she enjoyed the independence and privacy that she was used to. She also enjoyed the attention she had received from Gregory House last night. She didn't understand her ambivalent feelings. How could last night have been so good, but now she didn't want him here? She didn't know that everyone has ambivalent feelings when starting a new relationship.

She had such a good time last night, first at the conference and then the dinner after the conference, and then pizza and a movie with Gregory House. She hadn't had that much fun for a very long time. Last night was the first time that they had fun together. They were always so serious at their shared meals. Isabella was surprised that she enjoyed joking with Gregory House. She hadn't realized that he had a sense of humor. He seemed younger when he was having fun.

So… the conference was over, rehearsals were over; she had no job, nothing to do and nowhere to go. Isabella felt lost. Since she wasn't moving to New York to work on Broadway she could still volunteer with the kids on the oncology floor, until (unless) she got a job. That would be a good way to spend some of her time.

She didn't know in what part of the country she would work (if she could even find a job at this late date), so she couldn't find a permanent place to live until she found a job. She couldn't deal with having nothing to do and so her mind started working on her future.

She needed to write her resume and apply for some residencies. It was so late in the season that all the good positions had been taken by now, but she would apply to all the good hospitals and hope for the best. It was better than just sitting around worrying and doing nothing about it.

She knew that it would be a simple matter to write her work history; the job in the lab, her research project that she had published, her summer internships and all her regular medical school work would be easy to organize and place on paper. What was more difficult was how to explain why she hadn't applied for any residency jobs long before now. She was going to have to give that some serious consideration. She would start working with the easy stuff and maybe something would come to her about the other, more difficult explanation.

Gregory House let out a loud snore, more of a snort really. Isabella startled and then giggled quietly. When was he going to wake up and go home, anyway? It was already nine o'clock. Isabella was hungry. She wanted to go out and get some breakfast, but Gregory House was sleeping in her room. She was annoyed. Well…OK…what was he going to do? There was nothing to steal.

Isabella left a note for Gregory and walked over to a restaurant that was only two blocks away. She ordered her breakfast and another breakfast to go for Gregory House.

She really needed to get an apartment with a real kitchen but again, she had to wait until she found out if she got a job and if so where the job would be. There was no sense in getting a place right now.

Isabella chewed her bottom lip. What if Gregory House wouldn't let her take the baby out of state? If she could only look in state for a job, that would be a big problem. There were only a small number of hospitals in New Jersey with teaching programs. If she was offered a job out of state, would that work out or would Gregory House make her turn it down so he could be close to his child? He didn't even want the baby. What difference would it make to him?

She needed to talk to Dr Foreman and find out if there were any openings here. That would be ideal; she could stay in the hospital where everyone knew her and she knew everybody, Gregory House could see the baby, if he really wanted to, and she could stay in her home town. That would be the best solution. Yes, best but boring.

Tomorrow was Monday. She would go talk to Dr Foreman tomorrow. There might not be any job available that she wanted, there might not be any jobs at all, but she had screwed up by not applying on time so she might have to take anything she could get. If she didn't like it she could always apply for something else next year. She could do a second first year; she was only 18, a second first year residency wouldn't hurt her. She had planned to take two or three years off between medical school and residency anyway, when she was still going to act on Broadway. She also wanted to take time off when her baby was born.

Isabella finished her meal and collected the extra breakfast and then returned to her room.

She unlocked the door to her motel room and walked in. Gregory House was bent over, tightly grasping his right thigh; his breathing was irregular and difficult. He made little noises in the back of his throat. He was in intense agony.


	17. Chapter 17

Isabella and Gregory House take a turn in their relationship starting with this chapter.

Seventeen: Gregory House has a Heart Attack and Isabella Takes Care of Gregory House

Isabella dropped her purse and the take out box on the bed as she ran past it on her way to examine her husband. His skin was wet from sweat and it was clammy; his body was trembling, shaking and rigid from the severe pain. He gasped for breath. It was difficult for him to breath because of the pain.

Isabella immediately took his pulse and discovered that it was so high that he was at imminent risk of having a heart. She had no medication to give him to bring down his heart rate. Isabella quickly called 911. House tried to object, but was in so much pain he could barely speak. Isabella was frightened that he would die before the ambulance could get there to give him medication for his pain and to bring down his heart rate.

There was an open orange pill bottle on the floor and a handful of pills spilled across the floor. She picked up the bottle and looked at the label; the pills were Vicodin.

"Gregory House, did you take some of these Vicodin?" He shook his head no. He must have been trying to take some and spilled them before he could. He was in so much pain he couldn't even pick them up to relieve his agony.

Isabella gently examined his thigh and discovered that her husband was having a severe muscle spasm. His lower leg was also in spasm and as hard as a rock. There was a large crater in his thigh, leading her to believe that this was more than a muscle spasm but she couldn't do a more thorough exam here without any equipment, and besides his heart was her primary concern right now.

She could hear the sirens coming closer and she willed the ambulance to hurry. She didn't want to give Gregory House any of his Vicodin right now because they would have much stronger pain medicine on the ambulance and the Vicodin would interfere with him receiving a larger dose of the stronger medicine. Hurry up, she thought. Hurry up! She opened the door to the room as the ambulance pulled up right outside the room.

The EMT's ran in, carrying their equipment with them. Isabella gave them a report and they relayed the information over the phone as they quickly assessed their patient. Gregory House went limp, but his right leg was still rigid. The EMT's eased him off the chair and placed him on his back on the floor. He was in cardiac arrest. The pain he had experienced was so extreme that it made his heart beat much too fast, causing a heart attack. The medics performed CPR on him and shocked him twice while giving him medicine and starting a large bore IV. They got capture and his heart began to beat once again.

The EMT's gently placed him on the gurney and wheeled him out and slid him into the ambulance. Isabella climbed in after the stretcher. They drove with lights and sirens on and because he was unstable and critical and they took him to the closest hospital without asking a preference. Isabella tried to stay out of the way and let them work. They asked about allergies and health history, but Isabella couldn't give them any information. She explained that they had only been married a few weeks.

They arrived at the PPTH ambulance bay and slammed open the vehicle doors and then quickly removed the stretcher. Isabella almost had to run to keep up as they wheeled her husband into the emergency department.

An Emergency Department team had been alerted and was waiting. They immediately started working on Dr House as soon as he cleared the ambulance doors. Blood studies were ordered and taken right away while the EKG leads were changed over to the ED machine. Several people were doing various procedures at the same time; ED personal moved around each other as they had done many times before while taking care of critical patients. There were no wasted motions.

Dr Forman and Dr Wilson came running in. Everything that could be done was already being done, so they stayed close by and watched. At first they didn't see Isabella. She came over and stood by them for whatever comfort that provided. Dr Wilson saw her.

"Were you with him?" Dr Wilson asked with a catch in his voice.

Isabella just nodded yes.

"What happened?" Dr Foreman asked with urgency.

Isabella told them about coming back from the restaurant and finding him incapacitated by his pain. She gave them a report about his condition, heart attack, treatment in the ambulance and here in the ED. She talked to them, but her eyes seldom left her husband. They both looked at her strangely and then exchanged looks upon learning that House had been in her motel room. She had saved his life by calling the ambulance quickly. They were grateful for that.

The frantic activity started to slow as Gregory House was stabilized. Some people who had been working on him moved on to help other people, leaving three people to take care of her husband. Two more people left and then the last person left as well, leaving the curtain open so they could closely observe their patient. He was checked on frequently and his heart was monitored at the nurse's station.

His vital signs and color looked better but he had to be intubated after his heart attack and had received medicine so he wouldn't fight the tube. He had received Morphine for the pain in his leg and his heart, and other strong medicines to relax his leg muscles so he was resting comfortably, but he wasn't awake because he was medicated.

He was going to be observed in the ED for a few hours and then be transferred to the Cardiac CCU. Isabella hoped that the worse of it was over. She didn't know how much more Gregory House's body could take.

Isabella had worked on critical patients many times before while in medical school, but this wasn't the same thing. She knew and liked this patient; he was the father of her child and her husband.

Someone pushed a chair over for her and she sat beside her husband. Drs Wilson and Foreman looked uncomfortable having her there. They didn't know what her relationship with House was. They both wanted to question her, but there were a lot of people close by and so there was no privacy.

Dr Chase hurried in. Dr Forman had called him at home and Chase had rushed in to check on his mentor and friend. Dr Forman gave him a report and they all stood around looking worried.

After a few hours Gregory House slowly came back to consciousness. His team and friends hadn't stayed the whole time but they checked in on him and they were all there when he started to wake up. Dr Wilson talked to him and comforted him as he came back to consciousness and then he told House that he was going to take the tube out. The tube was removed without difficulty. Gregory House's voice was weak and horse. Dr Wilson held a cup of water and supported the back of his head so House could drink. The movements looked practiced, as if this wasn't the first time he had helped in this way.

Once the tube was removed his team members and former team member talked to him for a few minutes and then left so he could rest. Dr Wilson and Isabella were the only ones left at the bedside. Dr Wilson was annoyed at Isabella's presence. Isabella wished that Dr Wilson would leave as the others had. Her husband needed his rest.


	18. Chapter 18

Eighteen: Gregory House Starts His Recovery

House was soon moved to a private CCU room where he would still have his heart monitored, but the bed was larger than the ED gurney and the room allowed him more privacy. Isabella didn't know if she should stay or go. She didn't want to ask in front of Dr Wilson. She had the impression that he wanted her to leave so he could be alone with Gregory House. Well, she wanted him to stop hovering and leave so she could have a few minutes alone with her husband; only no one knew that she was his wife.

"Do you want anything, Gregory House?" she asked.

"Cough drops." He managed to say. His throat was sore from coughing on the tube.

"OK, I'll go to the gift shop. Is there anything else you need?"

"Not right now." House wanted to reach out and touch her hand, but didn't think she would like that. She had told him not to touch her. He felt lonely when she left, even though she was coming back and Wilson was there to keep him company.

Wilson wasn't used to having to share his best friend, and he didn't like it. Why was she hanging around, anyway? He liked Isabella but he was happy when she left and he and House could get back to their usual banter.

Isabella was tired. It had been a difficult and miserable day and it was almost night time. She bought the cough drops and something for her dinner; she hadn't eaten since breakfast. She bought some soft food for her husband because his throat was sore and a sandwich for his best friend.

The men thanked her for the food, and they all ate together. It was awkward with the three of them in the room. She debated leaving but didn't want to abandon Gregory House.

Finally Gregory House kicked them both out, saying he was tired and needed to sleep. He wanted her to stay, but knew she was pregnant and needed to rest after surviving this day.

Isabella returned the next day and brought his backpack. It had been left behind when they left in the ambulance. They alternated between visiting and watching TV. House was feeling better and wanted to go home. His doctors wanted to keep him a couple more days. Isabella talked him into staying a little longer.

Isabella ordered her meals from the family menu and they ate their meals together in the room with Dr Wilson frequently joining them. Time passed very slowly.

Gregory's friends kept coming by and he would snark at them. They seemed used to it and although there was some eye rolling, didn't seem to mind. Gregory referred to them as his team, but it was obvious that they were his friends and that they cared for him.

House and Isabella spent the next two long days together in the same way. Wilson was often there and Isabella would leave for a little while to give them time alone. It was obvious that they were important to each other; besides Isabella enjoyed the break. It was difficult staying in that little room all day sitting in that hard plastic chair.

All House's friends were very interested in Isabella and wondered why she was there. They discussed it and gossiped about it among themselves, but didn't question House or Isabella about it.

House was transferred to the step down unit late in afternoon on the second day. People came from the cardiac rehab unit to help him, but House wasn't interested in what they had to say. This wasn't his first rodeo.

There was something important that Isabella wanted to talk to him about, but waited until he was feeling better. She was a doctor, but felt a little ill at ease in approaching this particle topic with her proud and independent husband.

She sat in her usual bedside chair and started talking. "During summer vacations when I was in my last year of college and all four years of medical school I worked at internships' in several diffident disciplines."

House was all ears and paid close attention. Isabella never talked about herself.

"Two years ago I worked with Dr Griffiths. Are you familiar with his work?"

"Name sounds familiar." House knew exactly who he was, and had read everything the other doctor had written.

"I worked with him for two and a half months in pain management, so I'm no expert, but he is. He is the top in his field. His research has helped a lot of people and he has published his studies and research in all the top notch medical journals. He receives hundreds if not thousands of patient referrals from doctors all over the country every year, but he is busy with research, now and doesn't accept many new patients.

Gregory House, your pain is not controlled and isn't managed at all. You died in my motel room and you were lucky the EMT's were able to bring you back to life. Your pain needs to be brought under control and it needs to be managed. You may not live the next time.

There are a many things that can be done to help you. Dr Griffiths can help you. He knows me and if I ask he may be willing to take you on as a patient. If I can get you in, will you go see him and give him a chance to help you?"

House thought about it for a minute, "I've already seen pain doctors."

Isabella knew that all pain patients went through hell trying different treatments to get relief and by the time they had spend years going from one doctor to another, trying one miracle cure after another they were discouraged and felt that nothing would work to help them with their pain. She knew that the only way to get past their resistance to try something new once again was to listen to them talk about their experiences and concerns that nothing would work. No one wanted to deal with pain patients, no one wanted to listen to them but that was exactly what they needed.

She talked with her husband, mostly listening, but asking gentle questions to help him talk about his experiences, not worrying the subject to death by trying to get all the information at once, but letting him talk at his own pace. By the time he left the hospital Isabella had slowly learned all about his infarction, what he had tried, what worked and what didn't help and his frustration and anger about what had happened to him, the anger and the betrayal of his girlfriend, the pain and how difficult it was when his friends didn't believe him, the fact that he nearly died and his parents didn't visit. House had never really talked about any of this with anyone before and it was as cathartic for him as Isabella's break down had been for her. They became much closer and started to trust each other. When House left the hospital, he was cautiously willing to try a pain doctor, one more time. Isabella had made all the arraignments and House had an appointment with Dr Griffiths.

Wilson drove Isabella home, and then drove House to his home as well. He had bought groceries to help him out and stayed to keep him company. House had been hurt so often that they fell into familiar routines. They both had a role to play and they were both experienced in playing their respective roles.

House missed Isabella. How could he miss her? He barely knew her; but he missed her nevertheless. He had grown to depend on her presence while he was in the hospital. He liked her and he missed her. He felt lonely without her.


	19. Chapter 19

Nineteen: House and Isabella Work Together to Create a Plan

This is a shorty. The next chapter is longer. Thanks for the reviews, follows and favorites! I love it.

After getting closer and more relaxed with each other in the hospital and after working up her courage to talk to Gregory House about going to the pain doctor Isabella felt comfortable talking to him about not having a job lined up and why. She shared her fears that she was too late in applying and that all the good positions were taken. She also shared that she was worried she wouldn't get a position at all this year or that she would have to take a job she didn't want, or perhaps that she would have to move away to find a job this late in the year.

Her husband listened to her fears and concerns and offered her some good advice and pointed out options that she hadn't thought about. Together they designed a plan to address her problem and some actions to reach her goal. They had a good talk and Isabella wondered why she had been so reluctant to talk about this with him. It was a new experience to have someone to lean on and it felt good.

After her husband's release from the hospital and after Wilson dropped her off at the motel, Isabella took a badly needed nap. When she woke up she called to check on Gregory House (Wilson was still there.) She told him to call if he needed anything and that she would be over to see him tomorrow when Wilson went to work. Now it was time for Isabella to get to work.

Isabella worked on her resume. Once she sat down and got to work it didn't take that long. The next step was to research the major teaching hospitals and what they taught and decide where she wanted to apply.

Isabella hadn't decided on what field she wanted to work in, so she was open to many different disciplines. That was probably a good thing since she would have to take almost anything that was available. Isabella was so involved in her research that she lost track of time and it was late at night when she finished.

She called and checked on her husband again. She knew Wilson was staying over and wondered if Wilson didn't have a life outside of her husband. Shouldn't she be the one taking care of Gregory House; **her** husband?

Isabella needed to go to sleep. She was going to talk to Dr Foreman tomorrow morning to find out if there were any positions available at PPTH and then she would go and stay with her husband in the afternoon. Talking to Dr Foreman was worth a try. She had also identified some other hospitals she wanted to apply to and she would work on that tomorrow while her husband rested. Now that she had Gregory House in her corner, finding a job no longer seemed insurmountable. She was excited to get started.

Pretend page break.

Do you like the "sibling rivalry" between Isabella and Wilson?


	20. Chapter 20

Twenty: Wilson Addresses the Elephant in the Room

House and Wilson had a pleasant afternoon and evening and House looked forward to his wife staying with him tomorrow afternoon. House's heart attack had been caused by the trauma and the stress of his greatly increased heart rate caused by his severe leg pain instead of from heart disease, so House had no dietary restriction as most patients did after a heart attack. Wilson ordered a couple of pizzas. They had plenty of junk food because Wilson made a run to the store for junk food and beer. They watched TV and videos and made their usually snarky comments to and about each other, and about what they were watching. They joked and laughed. Good time, old times, familiar times. It was nice. They were both content.

Wilson felt annoyed and quietly sulked when Isabella interrupted them with her phone call. Why was she bothering House, anyway? He could hear something in House's voice when he talked to Isabella that he hadn't heard there since Stacy. When House and Isabella got off the phone, Wilson decided it was past time to broach the subject; for House's own good, not taking into consideration that his friend was recuperating from a heart attack.

"What is with the two of you, anyway? What's going on with you House?" Wilson demanded to know.

"Why do you think there is anything going on, Wilson?" House evaded, his voice rising higher than usual.

"Oh, I don't know," Wilson stood up and started pacing and pointing his finger at House from time to time, "How about the fact that the two of you eat lunch together in the hospital cafeteria, you sat beside her at the dinner for the board members after the conference, and you NEVER go to conferences; but you did… this time you did; was it a coincidence that the ONLY conference you've willingly attended in 15 years was the one that Isabella was in charge of? Huh? You came to the big meeting before the conference and you NEVER go to meetings; was it a coincidence that Isabella was in charge of THAT? You weren't there to support me, noooo never to support me; you were there to watch HER! You drive her places in your car, she sat by your bedside for three days after your heart attack, you can't keep your eyes off her, AND YOU WERE IN HER MOTEL ROOM!" Wilson had started his tirade in a normal voice and became more vocally forceful, loud and accusatory as his allegations continued. He ended his long heated speech in his frustrated voice with his hands planted firmly on his hips. He had worked himself into quite a state.

Housed smiled and said in his mocking tone, "Why Wilson, could it be, is it possible? Are you jealous of her? You're not jealous, are you, Wilson? You are! You are! You are jealous because I made a new friend and you want me all to yourself." House sat up in his seat and he laughed in a superior and teasing way but he felt anything but superior and he wasn't in a teasing mood. He strongly felt the truth in Wilson's words and they stung for the truth in them. He didn't want to share Isabella with Wilson. He wanted to keep her to himself.

"No House! No I am NOT jealous," Wilson lied, continuing to pace and flap his arms about, holding his body rigid. "I am concerned, House." He said truthfully while he tried to cover, lowering his voice, getting his body under control, trying to appear reasonable, "I am concerned about you, and yes...yes I am concerned about her, too. She's a kid, House, she's just a kid; and you…you are not! What the hell are you thinking, House?" Wilson rubbed the back of his neck. "What are you doing? Are you out of your mind? That girl…that girl is only 20 years old… and you…you are 53. 53 years old, House, 53; and that girl is only 20; she's barely out of childhood! You are too old for her; waaaay too old for her." Wilson lectured, more upset than he was willing to admit. Jealousy played a very large part in his feelings but he was also concerned for his friend. He really hated seeing his friend hurt and broken when women left him and Wilson didn't see any way this could possibly end well for his friend, or the girl either for that matter."

House didn't answer and he didn't correct Wilson about Isabella's age. He just sat slumped on the couch, peeling the label off his beer bottle with his thumb nail. Wilson's lecture got to him much more than he wanted Wilson to know. House blamed and condemned himself for all these very same things. He hated himself for what he had done to Isabella. He had ruined her life, he had taken her virginity, married a teenager without either of them consenting to a marriage and not even knowing or remembering what they had done. He had gotten her pregnant with a kid neither of them wanted or planned for and in getting her pregnant he had taken away her dream of being on Broadway for christ's sake. She had to give up her role on Broadway because of the things he had done. He had completely changed her life and not for the better, and he already felt guilty enough without Wilson's input and condemnation. He was such a fuckup. He dad had been soooo right about him, he was a fuckup as a kid and he would always be a god damn fuck up. He was worthless and he had dragged Isabella down into the muck with him. He would never amount to anything and he didn't deserve to be around nice, normal people. And Isabella was a nice, normal person. She was more than that. He liked her. He liked her a lot, and he didn't deserve to be around her.

Wilson stood with his hand resting on the back of his neck. House was suddenly subdued and silent and Wilson didn't know what to think about that. Was it possible that House really liked this kid, had feelings for this kid? He watched his friend who had been happy a few minutes before and was now miserable.

"House… House, are you OK...House?"Wilson worried.

"Ya, Wilson, I'm tired. I just had a heart attack. I'm going to bed; are you staying?" He said in a depressed voice. Wilson nodded yes. "You know where the bedding is. Night Wilson."

"Night House." Wilson said.

What the hell was going on? Maybe House really did care for Isabella. But...but how could that possibly work? She was pretty, smart accomplished, hard working and an incredible kid; but she was still just a kid and House was a grumpy, much older, middle age man. How long before she moved on to someone her own age and left his friend with a broken heart? Wilson worried.

When Isabella called later on to check on him and to say good night, House was distant and quiet. Isabella felt some disquiet but then thought that he was probably just tired and needed some rest and she signed off a few minutes later.

House swallowed some pills. He was depressed. He let thoughts roll around in his head, thoughts of Isabella; how she looked and acted, her giggle; god how he loved her giggle; Isabella so in charge at the meeting and at the conference; how great she had been with the kids who performed at the conference, sharing meals with her, the way she said his name; he loved the way she called him "Gregory House" in that wonderful voice of hers; he had felt so alive, like a kid with his first crush; and now he felt empty inside. It was hopeless, he was hopeless. He fell asleep with this thought, he was such a fuckup.


	21. Chapter 21

Twenty-one: Isabella has a Meeting with Dr Foreman

The next afternoon Isabella went over to her husband's home. She brought lunch, a few videos for them to watch together and a box of microwave popcorn. She knocked on his door, musing that it was just a few weeks ago, six and a half weeks ago to be exact, that she had stood in this very spot, scared and miserable, needing but dreading and not wanting to tell a stranger that they were married. She hadn't seen him since Wilson dropped her off at the motel yesterday and she was surprised that she missed him. How could she have been afraid of him? He was just a big, loud, noisy, sweet, arrogant, funny, opinionated, kind, smart, thoughtful, annoying, sensitive, goofy and abrasive marshmallow.

He didn't answer the door and she didn't want to wake him up if he was sleeping.

House sat slumped down into his brown, comfortable couch indecisive about what he should do about Isabella. No, that wasn't true; he knew what he **should** do. He should let her go out of his life, that's what he should do if he was thinking of her welfare before his own. He heard another soft knock. House signed; he wanted and needed to see her, talk to her, and listen to her. He longed to hear her call him, "Gregory House". Oh god he had it bad. He answered the door. She was beautiful, so beautiful it took his breath away.

"Hi, Gregory House. How are you feeling? Have you been resting?" Isabella said giving him a once over to gage his health level as she walked into the kitchen with the bag of goodies.

House immediately felt more alive and excited. "I'm fine. What did you bring me?" He said, letting his little boy out to play and grabbing at the grocery bag. He didn't want to send her away. She made him happy. He wanted her to stay. He felt so…..something.

She chuckled. "Is that all you want me for, to bring you things?" She teased.

"Yep. What did you bring the poor, crippled, housebound invalid?"He teased back. How could this be wrong? He felt that they were the same age. He didn't feel old, he felt like he always had, and being with a pretty girl made him happy. Being with this pretty girl made him happy.

"Hold your horses, Gregory House. Go wash up for lunch."Isabella ordered.

House was happy to oblige. When he came back from washing his hands in the bathroom sink he watched Isabella move around in his kitchen; opening cupboards to find plates, opening drawers to find flatware, arraigning their lunch on plates. He liked her working in his kitchen. It felt right, somehow. He smiled to himself. She walked their lunches over to the living room and sat them down on the coffee table and then went back to the kitchen for the bag that contained the rest of the goodies. She sat on the couch to the left of Gregory House so she didn't accidentally hurt his bad leg. She smelled nice, House noticed. He grabbed at the bag again and this time Isabella let him.

"The popcorn is for later; after lunch" she said between bites, "we can watch the movies now, if you want to."

House picked out one of the movies and popped it into the DVD player. He didn't even mind that it wasn't porn. He waited to start it because he wanted to know how things went when Isabella talked to Foreman. He sat back down on the couch right next to Isabella. This was the closest they had been to each other, well that they remembered anyway, and he liked the closeness.

"Did you see Foreman this morning?" she shook her head yes because her mouth was full of food.

After swallowing she told him all about the meeting. Foreman had given her a lot of nice complements, she said shyly with her head down. He told her that every doctor she had ever worked for had only good things to say about her and they would have been happy to have her on their team. Unfortunately, as she had feared, all the resident positions were filled and, although he wanted to keep her in the hospital and have her do her residency here, he didn't have the funds to add another slot. If anything came up, if someone dropped out, he would highly recommend her for that position.

He also mentioned that he always needed doctors to work in the clinic, so that was a possibility. She didn't want to. She was the top of her class and the clinic was a job someone at the bottom of the class would have to take. It wasn't even a residency. It was working as a doctor and that would feel better than sitting at home and she would learn some things, but the down side was that it would be more difficult to convince someone to hire her for a good residency after working at a job like that for a year. She didn't turn him down, but she didn't think that would be a good career move. She left her application and resume with him and left, disappointed about the lack of a job, but feeling proud about all the nice things he had said about her.

After the meeting she went up to the pediatric oncology floor to volunteer for a few hours, she told Gregory House. The children got hyped up about their performances at the conference all over again as soon as they saw Isabella walk in. The older kids were in class, so no one needed help with their homework. She read to the little ones, tickled them, they sang some songs together, and she helped two little ones who were fighting to find a better way to deal with frustration. She did all the usual things. It was a nice morning. House loved how animated and enthusiastic she was when talking about the children. He didn't interrupt while she was talking but he kept up his end of the conversation by asking appropriate question. Isabella was relieved that her husband agreed that taking the job in the clinic wasn't' a good idea for her.

I've been thinking," she began, a little unsure of herself, "maybe I should just take this year off and then apply next year when I can get my applications in on time."

House thought for a minute, "So do you want to take an entire year off or are you just afraid you won't find a job?"

"Well…I don't think I'm going to find a job." She confessed."Also, I was going to take a few years off before residency anyway, back when I thought I was going to act on Broadway again, so taking one year off wouldn't be out of the question." She shrugged her shoulders.

"You only talked to one person; you only just now wrote your resume. You haven't even sent out any applications, yet. Don't you think it's a little early to just give up?"

"I guess." She said, looking like a little kid, again. She took a sip of her water to give herself a little time. She couldn't think of anything to say, so she started eating again. House did the same.

"Someone always drops out, you're smart and have a good background; you'll find something." He consoled. He was only partially lying; once in a while a first year would drop out for whatever reason, but there were no guarantees. Isabella very well could have to wait another year, but he was also right; it was too early to give up without trying. He wanted to fix this for her. He would make some phone calls.

"Hay, if you really want to take a year off, I could help with expenses." House generously offered.

Isabella just looked at his face, surprised and stalled. "Thank you. That is a very generous offer." She took another bite of food, chewed and swallowed. "I really can take care of myself." Isabella said softly.

Awww crap! House thought. He had insulted her. "I didn't mean…"

"I know. It's OK." She said and picked up the remote and started the movie. What was she hiding? House wondered. Her body language had changed and she avoided looking at him. House's radar went into overdrive.

"If you want to; or need to take a year off, well….that's going to take some money. You need to cover housing, food, baby things, and all the other things that take money to live. How could you cover all that without some help?" he asked carefully.

"I know!" she said tensely, "I'll be fine." She said staring at the television screen, not looking at her husband, no longer eating.

Interesting, thought House. He couldn't resist the puzzle; couldn't resist digging. He teased her trying to get some answers. "Do you have a lot of money socked away someplace…or maybe you robbed a bank… won the lottery… are independently wealthy?" He tipped his head to one side while looking at her. One of those hit the mark, but which one?

"You robbed a bank!" He joked. He didn't think so, but he also didn't know her well.

Isabella ignored him without reaction. So, nope; she didn't rob a bank.

"Did you win the lottery?" He poked.

Still staring at the TV, pulling her legs close into her chest and wrapping her arms around her knees, "Yes." She answered in a teeny, tiny, little voice

"What? What? You did? Really? You won the lottery?" Isabella slightly nodded her head and slowly swiveled her head so she was looking at House instead of the TV. She looked sad.

"WOW!" House said. He didn't understand why Isabella was acting the way she was acting.

Isabella just sat there looking at him. She looked sad and resentful. "Does it matter?"

"You're not excited. Why aren't you excited? You were hiding it. Why did you hide it? Winning the lottery isn't something to be ashamed of. Winning the lottery, it's a good thing. Isn't it?" House asked. He was puzzled and he didn't understand. He felt cheated, not because he wanted Isabella's money, but because his wife had hidden this from him. He was confused at her behavior.

She was silent for a while, then, "Gregory…" and stopped and sighed deeply. "It's a long story and I am not going to talk about it."

Why was she so upset? Why was she so traumatized about winning the lottery? Did it have something to do with the foster parents who were in prison? Why would she be upset about winning the lottery?

"Enjoy the movies. I'll pick them up and take them back tomorrow. I should get work on my applications." she said before leaving. She didn't even say good bye. She just left. House didn't understand.

Isabella opened the door and Wilson was standing there with his hand out ready to knock. Isabella rushed out past him without saying anything. That was unusual, Isabella usually had manners. Well at least she was gone so he could have fun with House.

Wilson plopped down on the couch," Fight with the wife?" Wilson quipped, not knowing he had hit the nail right on the head."

"Naw. Grab some beers and let's watch some porn." House said distractedly.

Wilson and House did that thing that they do; synchronized placing their feet on the coffee table and crossing the second leg over the first.

House made all the right remarks and did all the right things, but Wilson knew something was wrong. House seemed despondent, distant. After last night Wilson decided to wait until House said something; if he ever did. Maybe he was still upset about last night and the things Wilson had said to him. They critiqued the porn movie and its stars. House was there in body, but not in spirit. His mind was occupied elsewhere.

After the movie Wilson asked if House wanted him to stay overnight again. House made some sarcastic remarks and the two men decided that House was doing fine and was OK to be alone tonight. House was despondent, distant and recovering from a heart attack, but he said he was OK to be alone and Wilson agreed.

"Call me if you need anything, House."

"OK Wilson, night Wilson."

"Night House."

Pretend page break, the real page break didn't work.

Well the lottery scene was odd! What was that all about? I may decide to write a sequel and I have peppered a few things into this story just in case I do write a volume two. There will be several things that will not be resolved in this story. Isn't that like real life? Everything doesn't get wrapped up in a tidy ending.

I hope you enjoyed this (mostly) fun chapter.


	22. Chapter 22

Well, valued readers, we are 2/3 of the way through our journey with House and Isabella. Hope you enjoy this longer chapter. It was fun to write.

Twenty two: Danny Becomes a Dad Again and House Helps Isabella Babysit

His fellows were out of the office working up their latest patient when House called Isabella from his office early the next day. He hadn't heard from Isabella after she left the previous evening and she hadn't called to check on him as she had been doing since his heart attack. She hadn't called to see how his first half day back at work went. He was worried. Isabella's reaction to him discovering that she had won the lottery was odd and… concerning. He should have gone after her last night, why hadn't he gone to check on her? What the fuck was wrong with him? He didn't even call to see if she got home OK. He could tell how upset she was. If Wilson hadn't come in just then, would he have done the right thing and gone after her? He should have taken care of her. He was such a fuck up. He just let her walk away.

"Hello." Isabella answered the phone; she was out of breath. House was relieved she answered the phone. Maybe she wasn't upset with him.

"Hi, how are you?" House asked.

"I'm on my way to Danny's place. His girlfriend, Irene, is in labor and I'm going to watch the girls. They can't leave until I get there and this is their fourth baby, so she should progress quickly. I just got into a taxi and I should be there in a few minutes. How are you? How is your first day back?"

House was relieve she was OK and seemed to be back to her old self, nothing bad had happened after she left last night.

"Same old, same old. You know, diagnosing patients, saving lives. Do you need some help with the kids?" Oh, why did he say that? Noooo, he didn't believe that he offered to do that! He didn't want to spend his time with all those kids. He probably just offered because he was guilty because of last night; that and he missed her.

Isabella hesitated; she was surprised that Gregory House had offered to spend time with and help her with Danny's children. He seemed to have reluctantly accepted that she was going to have his child; he had no choice, but he wanted her to get rid of his own child. This was confusing. He didn't want his own child, but he wanted to help her take care of Danny's children?

"Would you like to come over and help with them?" she asked, carefully.

"Sure, if you want some help." House responded, trying to keep his voice normal but his face was scrunched up painfully, hoping she would say no. He had enjoyed taking care of Rachel and spending time with her, but she was a cool kid and there was only one of her. He hadn't seen her for two years. He wondered what she was like now. She probably didn't even remember him, he thought sadly. Isabella's friends had three kids to take care of. That was a litter of kids.

Changing the subject Isabella said, "You have your appointment with Dr. Griffiths in about an hour. I wanted to be there with you, but I'm obviously not going to be able to, now. Are you OK going on your own?" She asked.

"MOM….. Yea, I'm good." House whined then he grew up.

"I'd like to talk longer and I want to hear about everything, but I'm here and I have to hurry. Call me after your appointment, OK?"

"Yep. Bye"

House didn't want to waste his time going to yet another pain doctor, to be poked and prodded and x-rayed. Why had he promised Isabella he would go? Why had he let her talk him into this? Because Isabella said she would go with him, that's why, and she was sure her friend could help him. She was so earnest and cute (Cute? He didn't use words like cute!) when she talked about it and he didn't want to disappoint her. He had read everything this doctor had written and House knew that he was a good doctor, as Isabella said; he was the top in his field.

He had been to see so many different doctors over the years and he had tried countless treatments, none of which worked very well. Some helped a little, but none offered any real relief. Not even Wilson knew that he had been to all those pain doctors and therapists, nor all the treatments and medication that he had tried.

He had no hope that anything would help, he just had to live with his pain and disability for the rest of his life as he had done for more than a decade. Isabella had worked hard to convince him to go to see her friend and she was excited that he might be able to help with the pain. House had finally agreed to go and let Dr Griffiths examine him. Oh, why did he promise Isabella he would go? House let his head fall back. He had a tiny bit of hope that maybe this time something would help, but he had hidden that sliver of hope so deep that he didn't even know it was there.

He limped to the elevator and then took it to the fifth floor. Dr Griffith's fellows did all the preliminary work .Dr Griffith was somewhere else. House would see Dr Griffith after the test were done and read. The fellows were well trained and knew what they were doing. Isabella had made sure that all of his medical records were made available to them. The newer records were all digitalized, but his infarction happened before digital records and his early records were still in paper charts.

House tolerated the fellows collecting his history and endured the physical. Dr Griffiths wanted new full body radiology studies and he would compare them with any old studies that were available.

He had to make a second appointment with Dr Griffiths for after all the new studies were completed and the reports were made available.

House decided to go to Danny's place so he could talk to Isabella in person. Talk was an optimistic word for what happened. Isabella was busy taking care of the litter of kids, and was preoccupied with them and paying attention to them. They all needed different things at the same time. She was able to manage the three ring circus well, as well as she had managed the conference, she was a natural. House was proud of her and the way she was with children; he was also jealous that her attention was not on him. He didn't share well.

It was difficult to complete any conversation because the kids demanded all her attention. He could barely get a word in edgewise. Gregory House wanted Isabella to pay attention to him, wanted to tell her about his day and the doctor's appointment.

"How long do you have to stay here?" Gregory House tried not to whine.

"Two or three days. Depends on when they release her from the hospital."

One of the kids demanded that Isabella sing with her. Another kid was hungry; the third kid; the youngest one, had taken off her diaper and was delighted to be running around bare assed. House didn't like being here. There were too many people in too small of a space. He wanted to go home and he wanted Isabella to come with him.

"Gregory House, can you put a clean diaper on her?" Isabella wanted to see his reaction to being asked to help a baby.

House expertly diapered the baby and she offered to share a half eaten and gummy, hairy cracker with him. They made funny faces at each other. The other kids saw them and joined in. Everyone was sitting on the floor and the newly diapered kid tried to sit in his lap. House was careful to guide her away from his bad leg. Isabella was surprised he was so good with the children.

She asked him to entertain the children so she could make dinner. He made a typical House remark at her request for help, WHILE he was playing with them. She watched through the window between the bottom of the kitchen cabinets and the top of the counter. Gregory House read some books to them and asked them silly questions about the stories; they made things up and changed the story, they talked in funny voices. They were all laughing and goofing around. He joined in their play like a big kid. It was obvious that he enjoyed children and had experience keeping them entertained. They all made her smile.

She wondered why he did not want his child, her child, their child; why he wanted her to abort it. He would be such a great dad. Thinking about this made her very sad, but she hid her sadness. She didn't want the children to see.

After dinner Isabella gave all the children a bath at the same time and then asked Gregory House for help putting them in their pajamas and then together they read three stories to the kids. They wanted Gregory House to read to them in his funny voices. Isabella called the hospital and let each of the girls talk to their parents. Finally it was bed time. Their "beds" were blankets on the floor. Isabella turned out the overhead light in the living room and the adults went into the "dining room" to softly talk. The kids were well trained to stay on their blankets after bedtime.

Gregory House finally got to tell Isabella about his day and his appointment. He enjoyed her attention. The kids kept interrupting, though. He finally said, "Pipe down in there!" in his deepest voice, and they giggled and then they piped down and went to sleep and the adults talked.

Sitting on the floor with the wall for a back rest was not comfortable, not comfortable at all. Their backs hurt and House's leg rebelled against this position. They kept changing positions, but it was still uncomfortable.

"How can they live like this? How can they live with all these people in one room and no furniture?" he whispered. The kids seemed to be asleep, but he, himself used to fake being asleep so he could eavesdrop.

"This apartment used to be Danny's and mine." Isabella confided. It was our first apartment and we loved being on our own. We each had a sleeping bag we bought from Goodwill and we washed them twice at the laundry mat. We bought the TV and the kitchen things there, too. The apartment was plenty big enough for the two of us." House listened intently. Isabella seldom talked about her past. "I worked at the hospital in the lab and as a tutor and went to college. Danny found a job at a car wash. That was a good time, a really good time." Isabella reminisced fondly.

"What changed?" House asked.

"Danny found Irene and then the apartment got a lot smaller. There really isn't much privacy."

"I can see that. So then what happened?"

"When the babies started coming along, it just got too hard. I couldn't study and none of us got any sleep with all the normal newborn crying going on. The lack of privacy was a problem. We irritated each other.

An apartment that was perfect for two people was not so perfect for four people. I worked early in the morning and again late at night. During the day I went to school, gave tutoring lessons and volunteered on the pediatric oncology floor. I started staying in the employees lounge at work over night. I was the only one who worked later in the evenings and the only one who worked early in the morning, so no one knew that I stayed there, and I had the place to myself. It was a lot easier to stay there than to stay at home and commute home at night and then come back early the next morning. It was quiet there and I could study and sleep. After a while I started staying there on the weekends, too. The lab was closed on the weekends; I was the only one who worked then. I had everything I needed, a place to sleep and study, a small kitchen, a locker to keep my stuff in. I liked staying there, it was quiet. The entire basement was nearly deserted. I went to visit Danny once or twice a week and sometimes he would visit me at the lab. It worked out well."

Isabella got up to get them both a glass of ice water, checked on the kids and brought the two sleeping bags into the dining room to sit on. House lay down on his side and Isabella followed. They lay on the floor, facing each other just a couple of feet apart.

"Your turn." Isabella declared.

"My turn for what?" House said. He had a lot of questions about what Isabella had just share but he decided to let her tell her story in her own time. When he had tried to dig for information in the recent past, it didn't turn out well.

"I told you something from my past, now it's your turn to tell me something from your past." Isabella said earnestly.

House looked at the ceiling and rolled over onto his back. He took a few minutes to decide what to share. He didn't want to scare her off by telling her the bad things. He told her about being a Marine brat and traveling the world at an early age and he told her about living in Egypt. Isabella had never been outside of New Jersey and New York and thought it would be wonderful to travel. They whispered until they both fell asleep. It was good that they did; the girls were very early risers.

House woke up during the night. He needed to take his pills and massage his leg. He also needed to pee. He checked on the little girls, he liked watching the babies sleep like he used to watch Rachel sleep, there was something about sleeping babies; and then he went back to "bed".

A piece of Isabella hair had fallen across her face in her sleep. House lay down beside her and very, very gently used the tip of one index finger to slowly brush the errant hair back into place behind her ear. He gently caressed her cheek and sniffed her hair. Something weird was happened to his heart, but not like a heart attack.

His wife was so accomplished; so adult in so many ways; she had done so many things. Other women her age had years to grow before they even came close to accomplishing what Isabella had. She had taken on the responsibility of people much older than she was, she was an expert at managing large groups of people and complex projects; AND his little wife was also still a little girl in so many ways, much younger than her chronological age. She had still been a little girl in med school, college and high school, and so hadn't had had the social opportunities and the experiences and background that other young women her age had. In so many ways she was emotionally a prepubescent girl. In so many ways she had the skills of an adult in her 40's or 50's. She was a delightful amalgamation of a shy, innocent young girl and an adult, responsible woman, and she was also just 18 years old. Gregory House loved the merger of all the wonderful fusion and synthesis of all her parts. House loved the conundrum that his wife was.

He used the light coming in through the window to gazed at her until he fell back to sleep. He had never been as content as he was right now.

The next day was Saturday. It was their seven week anniversary. His life had changed so much in those seven weeks.

Isabella had brought a bag with clean clothes and essentials with her, but House had slept in his clothes and had no clean ones to change into. He went back to his apartment after an early breakfast with the little girls and Isabella. He was planning to stay at home, but it was just too quiet and empty. He did his usual piano playing and so forth but found it difficult to concentrate on anything. Nothing held his interest.

Gregory House packed a bag for himself and then went to a store. He bought a box of chocolates for his wife for their anniversary and some candy for the girls as well. He bought some junk food for himself. He had to be careful not to buy too much because he couldn't carry much.

The girls greeted his arrival with squeals and hugs. They were happy to see him. He didn't let on but he was happy to be back here with his wife and the little rug rats, too. Isabella was surprised and delighted with her present. House hid his smile and for some reason was too shy to tell her it was for their anniversary. It felt good to make his bride happy. The girls loved their candy as well. Isabella let them each have one piece and then put all the candy up out of their reach.

They played house all weekend, just lazing around, playing, and watching TV. House was happy!

Wilson called several times. The first time he called from House's apartment. House told him he was out buying groceries then he was going into work for a few hours. (House lied. He had no case.) Wilson was surprised that House was grocery shopping, but went home after making sure that House was ok.

The third time Wilson called House again told him he was working in his office.

Wilson said, "Oh! Oh! I'm here looking at your office and the lights are off and no one is inside. You have no case. No case, House! Where are you House?" He was upset.

House quipped, "With a hooker." Isabella gave him a look that he didn't at all enjoy.

"You're not at home and you're not at Isabella's motel room either. Where are you, House?"

"In a bar?"

"House!"

"OK Wilson, here's the truth. I've hooked up with a woman who has three kids. We're playing house all weekend. She's taking good care of me, if you know what I mean, so Wilson you don't have to worry. I'm fine."

House did sound fine and he sounded… Happy?. House didn't do happy. What was going on? He didn't sound drunk and he didn't sound drugged out. Huh! Wilson was lonely. "OK House, want to get together and watch some TV?"

"Did you not hear? I'm shacking up with a WOMAN! We're playing house! She's taking GOOD care of me!" House said in his best teasing voice.

Wilson played with the keys in his pocket. "House, are you OK? You haven't been home all day."

"Ya, Wilson, I'm fine." He said in his normal voice.

"Why won't you tell me where you are? House, are you with Isabella? Because! You know that can't end well."

House fell back down to earth, he felt like his balloon had popped. Yes; he knew that it couldn't end well. He was very aware of their age difference and that they were at very different stages in their lives.

"Ya Wilson, I'm fine. Don't worry about me, OK? Let's go out for drinks after work on Monday." he suddenly sounded sad and defeated.

"OK House, if you are sure you're ok. Call me if you need anything."

"OK, bye Wilson."

"Bye House."

Wilson felt like he had just lost his best friend. He had all weekend and no place to go. He was pretty sure that his friend was with Isabella and that she would eventually break his heart and then HE would have to clean up the mess and pick up the pieces like he always did.

Wilson didn't call back after that. House felt guilty about being happy while Wilson was alone. Later that evening Gregory House told Isabella that he was going to go over to Wilson's for a while. He came back several hours later smelling of cigars and alcohol

Isabella felt deserted and missed Gregory House terribly. They had such a nice night last night and she wanted to have that again. Why did Gregory House leave her and the girls just to go see Wilson? They saw each other every day at work. She wasn't happy that he came back smelling of cigars and alcohol, but she was happy that he came back.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Things Return to Normal

Danny, Irene and their new baby daughter came home. Four girls! The "older" girls and Isabella were excited to meet their new family member and cooed and awed about her. House though it just looked like a baby, it didn't have much of a personality, yet.

He did feel something odd while watching as Isabella held the newborn and helped the girls take careful turns holding their new sister. She was so happy, her face glowed and it looked good; her holding a baby looked natural and…good, really good, House thought. She glanced his way a couple of time and caught him staring at her, and she smiled at him. Her smile melted his heart. He couldn't keep his eyes off her with the baby. She was going to be a really great mom, House thought. At least his kid would have one good parent. Isabella made him hold the little critter. It was tiny.

As a doctor he had pediatric patients, and he had held Rachel when she crawled into his lap, but the patients didn't count and Rachael had been a toddler. This kid was tiny! He looked into her face. If he had to be a father, he guessed a girl would be alright, as long as she took after her mom. The baby let out a tiny cry and he quickly handed it back to the mother.

Gregory House drove Isabella home. She thanked him for helping her with the children over the weekend and went into her motel room. She didn't invite him in. She was probably sick and tired of him. He went home for a short while then drove over to spend some time with Wilson. House wouldn't admit he didn't want to be alone after enjoying his temporary family all weekend.

Wilson came to the door with a big smile on his face when he saw House. House just pushed past without saying a word and went to raid Wilson's kitchen. Wilson just stood in the open door and dampened his smile a little and put his hands on his hips.

"Hungry House? Didn't Isabella feed you?" he teased.

"She fed me plenty."House grossly teased back, confirming Wilson's suspicion that House had been with Isabella this weekend. Wilson crossed his arms and shook his head, but kept his own council about his thoughts on the matter. He had already told House how he felt about the matter and he didn't want to get into another fight with his best friend right now. He would talk to him again later about it. Right now he just wanted to enjoy his best friend's company.

It was late and they had watched a lot of TV and drank a lot, period. House decided not to drive home in his current condition but to stay over in his old room and leave from here for work in the morning. He still kept some things in his old room and a tooth brush and other essentials in his old bathroom so he didn't need to go home first. He called Isabella from the bathroom for privacy, to say good night and then he went to bed.

Wilson was long gone to work when House got up, but he left breakfast in the fridge for House; it was his favorite, macadamia nut pancakes, and there was coffee, too. House dealt with the monster in his leg, took a hot bath and then enjoyed his delicious breakfast.

Things were back to normal at work; he had worked a half day on Friday, doctor's orders, but today he was back full time. It was a new week, and his team had a new case. House felt good.

Wilson's new week was also good. House had come back so he had got to take care of him and make him his favorite breakfast. Wilson felt good.

Isabella woke up in her motel room. She missed the girls and her husband. She was going to finish her research into what hospitals she might like to work for and send her resume and application on line to as many hospitals as possible. She planned to work at least eight hours or until she was done.

She had procrastinated enough, first because of the children's talent show, then her husband's heart attack and then because of Danny's new baby and babysitting for the girls. Now it was past time to get to work! She wasn't even going in to volunteer today. She had been there with the kids' everyday while they were getting ready for the conference and she needed to gradually decrease the time she spent with the children in case she had to move somewhere else in the country to find work and couldn't come as often as she liked. Even if she got a job in town, she wouldn't have as much free time.

Gregory House told her that he wouldn't stand in her way if the only position she could find that she wanted was out of state. He would just come to visit and check up on her and the kid, and they could visit him, too. He was lying when he said he was OK with it. He wanted Isabella here, with him, not out of reach somewhere else in the country. He made some phone calls.

It was late afternoon when he finished his phone calls. He called Isabella. There was a surgery residency that had opened up at Princeton General a few minutes ago. Someone had dropped out of the program to spend time with a relative who was dying of cancer. She had an interview tomorrow at four. Isabella squealed into the phone and Gregory House held the phone away from his ear but he had a big grin on his face. He had made his wife very happy and that made him feel good.

They talked for a little while and House told her what he knew about the head of the department, Dr Brian Eagle, that he was a good doctor with a good reputation. They had been in med school together and they had been in the same study group. Isabella wondered if Dr Eagle knew that his interviewee was married to the person making the phone call. She better find out before tomorrow at four, so she didn't make a faux pas. They made plans for tonight to go to a nice restaurant to celebrate the interview.

Isabella got off the phone; she was excited but she went back to work on her applications just in case this didn't work out. She had about another hour worth of work to finish up and then she would be done. Then she had to get ready for her dinner with Gregory House.

Huh! She thought; this would be like their first date. She wondered if meals in the hospital cafeteria counted as dates, and decided they didn't. After everything that had happened she was going on her first date with her husband! She didn't know what she was more excited about, the interview or her date. She decided she was more excited about her date. It wasn't just her first date with her husband; it was her first date, ever! She had graduated from high school when she was only 10, much too young to be interested in dating, and the men in her classes were always too old for her. Huh! And she ended up with someone too old for her anyway. She really didn't notice the age different though, much, well not anymore.

What would she wear? She had nothing to wear on a date to a nice restaurant. She needed to go shopping but she didn't have time. She called Gregory House and they pushed the dinner back by an hour.

Isabella decided that the rest of her application work could wait until tomorrow. She had to send over her application and resume to Dr Brian Eagle at Princeton General today, though. House had given her his friend's personal email because sending her information through normal channels would take too long and wouldn't get to the department head in time for the interview tomorrow afternoon.

It only took about 20 minutes to fill out the application and send it along with her resume because she had all the information in front of her and had been filling out very similar applications all day. Her resume already was finished and she just had to make a few changes to individualize it for this position. Done!


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Isabella and Gregory House have Their First Date:

Now, for something to wear, she thought. There was a mall not too far from her motel; only she didn't know a good store to shop. She almost never bought clothes and when she did she went to goodwill because it was familiar. She would go to the mall and see what stores they had. She found a store that looked like it had nice clothes. A sales person came up to her as soon as she walked into the store and asked if she could help. Isabella could get used to this! Isabella told the sales woman that she needed something to wear for a nice dinner out. The saleswoman took her to the junior department. Isabella didn't want to look like a kid when her husband was taking her out. She asked the saleswoman for something more…traditional. They worked together and found the perfect dress. It cost more than Isabella had spent on all her clothes for the past six years! The dress had a V neck, but was still modest. She loved it! The saleswoman asked if Isabella had shoes that would go well with her new dress and they decided that she needed new shoes and a handbag, and a necklace and earrings as well. This was fun!

With the saleswoman's help Isabella bought everything she needed and got back to the motel early enough for a shower, hair washed and dried and to dress up in her beautiful, new, and grown up clothes! She was thrilled!

She would have to dip into her savings to pay for everything, but she had more money than she knew what to do with. Now she was excited and wanted to go back to the same store and work with the same woman (she had her card) and replace **all** her clothing. Isabella smiled at the thought. Well…soon she would need to get all new clothes, anyway, to make room for her baby to grow. Isabella was on cloud nine.

She examined herself in the mirror and couldn't believe that the grown up woman in the mirror was her. She felt beautiful! She stepped back from the mirror so she could see her dress and shoes, well that didn't work because the mirror didn't go low enough so she stood on the bed and tried to twirl around to see the back of her dress. She almost fell so she got off the bed. She had seen the back of the dress in the store, anyway. The way it hung off her butt made her feel sexy. Her shoes had two inch heels, her very first heels! She had to practice walking in them, and they made her feel sexy, too. She was just a sexy, sexy woman! She was a sexy woman going out on the town for a date with her husband. She was more excited than she had ever been in her life.

Her husband knocked on the door and Isabella opened it. Gregory House gasped. He was speechless and just stood there for a moment looking at her with his mouth half open. He was dressed up in a nice suit and tie and his shirt was even ironed, his hair was combed. She liked his hair messy, better. He had shaved; she had never seen him clean shaven before and he looked really, really good! He smelled really good, too. He walked with a cane with a silver handle.

 **"** **WOW!"** he exclaimed when he saw Isabella. "WOW!" he said again. His eyes were practically popping out of his head. Isabella smiled shyly. She enjoyed his complement.

"You look great!" he had never seen her dressed up before, she was beautiful. "My little child bride is all grown up!"

Isabella loved that he had called her his bride. She didn't care much for the child part.

"You look really nice, Gregory House." she said as she gazed at him. "Come in."

Gregory House entered the motel room. He handed her a little clear plastic container with some flowers in it. She had never seen a corsage before and didn't know what a corsage was, but she did know flowers.

"Thank you for the flowers. They are beautiful!" she said. Isabella was trilled. There were her very first flowers from a man and the man they came from made them even more special.

"I better put these in water." she said.

Gregory realized that she had no idea what they were. Cameron had liked her corsage so he got one for Isabella thinking she would like one, too. He was an idiot.

Trying to save the situation he held out his hand and said, "Give me." Isabella handed the flowers back to Gregory House. He took the flowers out of the package and said, "These go on your dress. Do you want me to pin them on for you?" Isabella wasn't sure she wanted to be that close and wasn't sure she wanted to have pins anywhere near her. Would the pin ruin her new dress?

She said, "OK."

House came close to her, they were both nervous and uncomfortable and extremely aware of the other person who was standing so close that they could feel each other's body heat, but they also felt excitement. He fumbled with the flowers; he had to touch Isabella's dress near her breast to put the flowers on her. He should have bought the kind that went on the wrist like he bought for Cameron all those years ago, he thought.

Isabella kind of liked the feeling of her husband putting her flowers on her dress and being so physically close, she felt tingly when his hand brushed her skin, but she was also embarrassed. She missed his closeness when he finished and stepped back. She walked over and looked at herself in the mirror. Her husband was right behind her, looking in the mirror, too. She liked the picture they made; he did too. Isabella's body had started to awaken when her husband had been close and pinned the flower on her dress. She liked the feelings, but was uncomfortable with the unfamiliar sensations at the same time. It was very confusing, but in a very nice way.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked.

"Yes." she answered and picked up her evening bag. She felt so grown up. He held the motel room door for her and when they got to his car, he held that door for her too. She felt cherished and he felt like a kid on his first date. Both were excited by the presence of the other.

They made awkward small talk on the way to the restaurant, and they both tried in vain to think of some way to lighten up the conversation.

The restaurant was very nice. It had white tablecloths, candles and flowers at every table, and the lights were muted; everyone there was dressed up. Isabella had been to many nice restaurants with her friends in New York; but this was different. In New York she was just a little kid tagging along with her friends. Now she was a grown, married woman out for the evening with her handsome husband celebrating a job interview.

They went to the reservation desk, where a man wearing a tux was taking names and having the hostesses show people to their seats. The man saw the very young woman and he doubted that she was she even out of her teens, come in with a man old enough to be her grandfather. It was obvious that he **wasn't** the child's father or grandfather. The old pervert, he thought. He was always disgusted when old men went after very young girls. The old pervert must have a lot of money to get such a young, beautiful girl. He had to keep his face neutral for work and he hid his disgust, but House was very good at reading people and it quite was obvious what Tux man was thinking. Tux man wasn't as good as making his face neutral as he thought he was. Tux man was not a pleasant man and most people just let his behavior pass, perhaps with a little eye rolling and gossip when they got to their table, just to get away from him.

Tux man called over a hostess and told her where to seat them. House said in his oh so friendly and polite voice, "My wife and I are out for a special evening, you understand, and we require your very best table. And by the way, you are mistaken; my wife is the one with the money so I guess that makes me the pretty one. It's a common mistake." House raised his eyebrows and used that pleasant voice he used when he was decimating someone who wasn't quite smart enough to know they were being disparaged; or, even better, maybe they did. House smiled amicably at the judgmental man, and tilted his head coyly to one side.

Isabella looked at her husband shocked, recovered and then decided to play along while holding back a giggle. "Yes, my husband is my kept man; I guess you could call him my boy toy." She smiled sweetly. "Now, as my husband requested, we will have your best table; or… should we talk to your manager about your negative facial expressions when faced with customers you distain?" Isabella smiled sweetly.

Tux man looked at them with the distain just mentioned and told the hostess to seat House and Isabella at a different table. The little bitch deserved the pervert, Tux man decided. He hated this job.

The hostess seated them and gave them a huge smile and wished them a wonderful evening.

House was impressed and delighted with Isabella's response to Tux man. When they got to their very nice table, he wore a happy grin. Isabella laughed out loud.

"That was fun." she said still smirking.

House chuckled. She was like no one he ever knew.

Gregory House complemented Isabella on her shoes and earrings, as Wilson had taught him. Isabella was delighted.

After their fun with Tux man the conversation had lightened considerably and they started having a lot of fun.

House was self conscience that the people around them were judging him because he was much too old for her, especially after dealing with Tux man. He thought he saw a few of the women his age sending him dirty looks, while a few of the men sent him admiring looks. Most of the people weren't as interested in them as House thought they were. He decided to ignore them, concentrate on Isabella and give her a nice time. In a very short while he forgot about anyone other than his beautiful wife.

**(The following gives background info on Isabella's research project. If it is boring to you it's ok to skip it. You won't lose track of the story. )**Start reading again at the **

They were having a wonderful evening, talking, laughing, eating, joking and enjoying each other's company. Isabella told Gregory House about her research project. He had already read the published article she had written for an impressive medical journal, but he loved her enthusiasm as she talked and told him all about it.

She had read an article about the necessity of using anti-rejection drugs after transplants. It had become a standard of care to use these strong drugs with serious side effects for any and all transplants. But Isabella did further research on line and her research told her that they were only clinically proven to be necessary for large transplants; such as pancreas, liver and heart and lungs. There was no research, that she could find, that supported the necessity of their use in other, smaller transplants, such as (but not limited to) bone, muscle, hand and total face transplants that were just starting to be done six years ago when she started her research.

She already had her job as an assistant in the research lab. She organized her research and presented it to her boss Dr Evan Steward, or Dr Evan as he was usually called. She decided that she wanted to do a research project to see if the anti rejection drugs were really necessary for the smaller transplants, or if it had just become routine to use these drugs for all transplants, and then became a standard of care out of habit. Everyone did it so everyone did it.

Dr Evan was very supportive, but questioned her experience and background with research methods (Her job was cleaning cages, feeding, watering and weighing the rats used in the lab, a very entry level position.) She didn't have any real experience with research methods.

Her boss strongly recommended some classes for her to take before starting her research. Besides her regular pre med college classes on conducting research he wanted her to take one or more seminars on writing grant requests to support her research.

There was a three day weekend seminar in two weeks that would give her an excellent basis for writing grant requests. The seminar did not conflict with her work hours or school. Her boss helped her with the paperwork she needed to have the cost of the seminar and classes covered by the hospital. She was entitled to take work related classes as part of her benefit package.

Isabella attended the excellent seminar and a new college semester was starting soon so she signed up for the classes Dr Evan had recommended as well as the classes needed for her degrees. She had to get special permission for the class over load, but her grades were excellent and she had taken over loads before with no problems, so she easily got the over ride.

At the completion of that semester she had written for some grants and sponsors, had organized and written up her research project and was ready to start. She again presented her formalized request, her boss reviewed it with her and he approved her project.

Dr Evan was amazed at what his "14" year old assistant was able to accomplish. He started to help her learn more advanced procedures that weren't technically part of her job, but he could see that she was going places; besides, he was growing very fond of her, he enjoyed working with her and she was a very good, hardworking kid.

There hadn't been enough time for her grant request to have been reviewed or awarded when Isabella was ready to start her project, and it was a personal project, not a hospital project, so she had to operate on a shoestring budget of zero.

The lab had bought new rat cages a year before and the old ones were in a storage room in the basement. Dr Evan and Isabella went down and checked them out. The cages were old, dented here and there, and a little rusty in spots, but still serviceable; best of all there were plentiful and they were free for the taking. Isabella spent hours cleaning up the cages and scrubbing off the rust. Her boss gave her a small area in a corner of the lab for her research. She had to move some old equipment that was no longer in use from her corner to the basement to make room for her research. Isabella found three long, old tables in that same basement storage room and used them to place the cages on.

Rats were cheap and her boss bought them for her out of his budget because her budget was zero.

Isabella was animated as she shared her project with Gregory House. She had decided to study the effect of not using anti rejection drug on her rats after transplanting the left thigh muscle from one rat into another rat.

Every rat would have a transplanted left thigh muscle and the right thigh muscle of every rat would be part of the control group.

She was so excited when she heard back from her very first sponsor while she was busy setting up her lab.

One of the sponsor requests she had written was to a pet food company. She had explained her project and requested a donation of rat food with four different percentage levels of protein as the only variable to study the effect of the level of protein on muscle healing and function over time.

Isabella's project would use rats of four different ages to correspond with the human life stages of early childhood, the teen years, adults and the elderly. There would be 16 rats in each age group for a total of 64 rats. It was a small study as research projects went.

Every rat would have the thigh muscle transplant; and in addition each group of rats within each of the life stages would be divided into four groups. One forth of each life stage group would get a different level of protein in their diet.

She told Gregory House that she stacked the cages on the tables by age to keep everything well organized... The oldest rats had the bottom row, the youngest on top. The cages were lined up so that the first four rows of cages (a 16 block set of cages) would have the pet food lowest in protein; the last four rows (16 block set) the most protein. Isabella painted a dot of color on the outside of each rat cage corresponding with the rat food they received. The food was stored under the tables in containers with matching dots of painted color.

Dr Evan found an old computer for Isabella and she used it to write a program to track all the many variables she needed to document on her rats.

"What were your results, not using the anti rejection drugs? Did any of the rats survive?" House asked.

"Five out of the 64 rats got sick from transplant rejection syndrome. I had to decide if I should start them on immunosuppressant drugs, or try some other things. Since this was research I tried other things, various drugs. Two of the sick rats died and three lived. Dr Evan taught me to do autopsies on the rats that died. Just recently I started losing some to old age."

"I tracked and documented everything about the rats for five years, and then my boss and I did surgery and other tests to reexamine the transplanted muscles as well as the non transplanted muscle on the control leg. We could still see the scars on the tissue that had been reattached, but the strength and muscle function was pretty much identical."

"The different levels of protein in the diet seem to have no measurable effect on the muscles of either thigh."

**(If you skipped the research paragraphs start reading again here.**

"So, you published when you were in medical school?"House asked, even though he already knew.

"Yes. Five years after the original transplant surgeries I published. That was several months ago." Isabella said.

"How old were you when you started the research?" House pried.

Isabella hesitated. She was only twelve; it had been illegal for her to work at that age, but she no longer held that job. No one could take away the knowledge and experience she had gained from that job. She could no longer be fired for lying on her application, but if it were found out her reputation would be tarnished. Should she continue her lie? Only Danny knew about it, but Gregory House was her husband and she didn't want to lie to him.

"By the time I took the classes Dr Evan suggested and had everything set up and ready to go I was almost thirteen."Isabella glanced away when she shared this.

"Almost thirteen and you had already been working for a while, so you started working when you were twelve years old. Aren't you supposed to be at least fourteen to get a work permit?"House dug for information.

Isabella now looked sad, or was it scared? She no longer looked in his eyes and all the light was gone from hers. She chewed her lip. House kicked himself for putting her on the spot tonight during their dinner and for taking away the excitement from her eyes.

"It's OK, Isabella; you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. You never have to do anything you don't want to do."House tried to get the evening back on track. They were having a great time and he dampened it.

Isabella said softly, "No, it's alright. Danny is the only other person to know this. I would like you to keep this information private." She took a deep breath and starred him directly into his eyes, judging if he would honor her request.

Gregory House thought he knew what she was going to say. It was in the past, he had no reason to tell anyone.

"Sure." he said as he slightly shook his head yes.

'I used my real documents to make some fake documents on the computer. I made myself two years older so I could work." She continued to stare into his eyes, evaluating. He didn't seem to be surprised or likely to reveal her secret.

"Why did you want to work at such an early age?" he couldn't help himself.

Isabella's shoulders were hunched; she looked miserable as she looked at her hands and took a deep breath in and out through her nose.

Finally she said, "That is part of the same long story as the money. I don't want to talk about it right now, maybe never. Can't we just get back to having fun?"

She looked up at him then, trying to get the conversation back on tract. "You mentioned that you traveled the world when you were a child. I'd like to hear more about that."

House then entertained Isabella with stories of his travels as a child. Eventually they recaptured their good moods.

Isabella's phone rang and interrupted their evening. She wished she had turned it off; who would be calling her at this time of night? She couldn't resist the ringing and pulled it out of her evening bag intending to just glance at it and turn off the noise. The caller was Bruce Brown, their divorce attorney.

She told Gregory House who it was before answering the damn phone. They both crashed back to earth with a splat. Of course they both knew that they were legally separated and would be divorced in less than a year and a half; but they had been ignoring that fact as they fell in love. Their faces went from smiling to slack.

"Hi Bruce." House could only hear Isabella's part of the conversation. She listened for a little while.

"Um, I'm not at home and don't have my calendar with me. Can I call you back later?"

"No I'll tell him, you don't have to call him." she said

"OK Bruce, we'll talk to you later." The conversation ended and Isabella put the phone back in her purse.

Isabella settled into the back of her chair and thought before she shared, "Bruce said that there is another form that we need to sign. It's a new requirement, that's why he didn't have us sign it when we were in his office."

They were both subdued, thinking their own thoughts. The couple picked at their meals and tried to make polite conversation but it was too awkward and they gave up. Isabella asked for takeout containers for their half eaten food and neither of them wanted desert.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Isabella Tells Gregory House Her Hopes and House Calls Nolan for Help

They drove back to the motel in silence.

Gregory House invited himself into Isabella's motel room and stood leaning against the dresser that had the TV on top. He stared at his shoes and tapped his cane on the floor.

Isabella stood a few feet away. She wanted to sit down but didn't because she was wearing her new dress with Gregory House's flowers pinned on her shoulder and she didn't want to get dirty by sitting in a motel chair.

Neither said anything for a time.

Finally Isabella said, "I'm going to change out of my new dress. I'll be right back."

She gathered the sweats she used for night clothes and quickly changed and hung her dress up in the little area provided to hang up her clothes; an open shelf with a rod across it and the hangers attached to the rod. For the first time she minded living in this motel. She hung her pretty dress up beside her goodwill clothes and the stained ironing board. Well that looked depressing.

Gregory House also didn't want to sit on motel room furniture in his good suit and he was still standing there leaning against the dresser a few minutes later when his separated wife came out of the bathroom. He had taken a fist full of his medicine while she was out of the room.

Isabella sat on the bed as she had when they watched movies, all curled up on one corner with two pillows at her back.

Gregory, said, "We should talk." Isabella agreed, but she didn't want to.

"Ya."She said softly, pulling over a pillow and hugged it into her middle.

"What do you want to do, Isabella?" he waited. "When we decided on a divorce we didn't know each other. Do you still want the divorce?"He jumped right in with both feet. He tried to peek around her hair to see her face.

He wanted her to say no, that she didn't still want the divorce; he wanted that more than he had ever wanted anything, but why would she say no? She had everything going for her. She could have anyone she wanted. Why would she pick him? He was nothing but a grumpy old, broken down ex-con of an addict. She shouldn't be saddled with him. But he wanted her, anyway. He wanted her to say no. He wanted her to say she no longer wanted a divorce; he wanted her to say that she wanted to stay with him. He held his breath, waiting for her answer that would determine the rest of his life.

Isabella sat hunched in the corner of the bed, slumped over with her head down. "I don't know; I like being with you. I don't know." she said very softly without looking up at him, her long brown hair formed a curtain that covered the sides of her face hiding it so he couldn't see her beautiful face.

She likes being with me! House was ecstatic. She likes being with me!

"I like being with you too." House smiled.

She didn't say anything. He waited.

When she looked up there were tears on her face.

"No, no no no, don't cry. Please don't cry. Whatever you want will be OK. We'll make it OK. Don't cry. Isabella, please don't cry. Why are you crying?" House pleaded and was beside himself. He couldn't deal with crying women, especially this one.

She used the back of her hand to swipe the tears from her face, but it didn't do any good because they were just replaced with new tears. She was looking down at her hands and started talking with tears in her voice as well as on her face.

"I don't know… I don't know. Our baby is going to be born in a few months and you don't want him. You want me to get rid of him." She cried a little more and then got herself under control, "You are a grown man…you can take care of yourself. He is just a little baby and he needs me. I have to take care of the baby. I **don't** want you around him. He'll know that you don't want him. Kids always know and I don't want him to know that kind of pain."

Isabella took some breaths and then explained her hopes and dreams for her child."I want him to grow up in a home that is a safe place to be; where he can just be a little kid and no matter what he does he'll know that he can tell me and we can work it out. I want him surrounded by love and acceptance. I want him to be happy and to have self confidence. I **don't** want him to know that his own father doesn't want him."

House just stood there. He had no idea he had wounded her so. He never intended to hurt her. He didn't deserve her. She was so good and he wasn't. He hated himself. He just stood there as stiff as a board.

"I have to make a home for my child." Isabella continued, "I want to make a good home for him where he is never afraid and never feels alone, where no one will ever hurt him." Gregory House listened carefully; everything other than Isabella was blocked out. "But I want to be with you, too; but I can't have him and you at the same time. And I don't want to be married. I'm too young to be married." she paused.

"You **like** kids, Gregory House; and you are **so** good with them. Danny's kids love you. You would be **such** a good dad." Isabella started crying again. "I don't understand. I don't understand why you don't want your own child. I don't understand why you want to get rid of him and why you don't love him. I don't understand why such a **good** man doesn't want his own child" Isabella sniffed, no longer crying; now she sounded angry.

House was in shock. He didn't know this was how he made her feel. He wished he could take it back, that he had never said those things. He wanted to hold her and comfort her and love her, but he didn't have that right. He was the one who did this to her, made her feel like this, made her cry.

"Isabella…." He felt so bad that he almost sobbed himself. "Isabella…" She swiped at the new tears on her cheeks.

"Isabella, that **isn't** the way I feel." The strain of his emotion could be heard in his voice. "Please stop crying. Isabella, I'm sorry. Please stop crying. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. When I said those things I didn't even know you. You had just told me that we were married and then a few days later you told me that you were pregnant. I needed time to deal with all that. Please stop crying. We were strangers, married and having a child and I didn't even **know** you. I didn't even remember anything about our wedding or what happened later. I don't know what to say. Please stop crying, Isabella, Please. Listen to me. That isn't the way I feel. I was just caught off guard, that's all…" he couldn't think of anything else to say. He just stood there, looking at his wife. He was miserable for putting her through this.

Isabella swiped at her cheeks again and stopped crying, thinking about what her husband had just said. All this turmoil and emotion was exhausting.

"I'm 18 years old. I never wanted to be married. I don't want to be tied down and I'm too young to be a mother..."

She lay back against her pillows again, still thinking. She fell asleep, thinking. She slept curled up in a ball like the little girl she was right now; using only a tiny corner of the bed.

House cried a river on the inside, his misery clearly visible on the outside for what he had put his innocent young wife through. He paced around the room.

He was such a fuck up and his wife suffered for it. He didn't deserve her. He should just leave her alone, let her get back to her life; only she couldn't get back to her life because he knocked her up. Eighteen years old and he knocked her up. He should be back in prison where he belonged; where he couldn't hurt people, far away from nice, normal people. Well…he couldn't leave her alone, not right now. He wanted to hold her. He had to stay here until she woke up and then he had to try to clean his mess up. How could he do that? How could he repair the damage he caused? He couldn't. He couldn't fix this. There was no way he could undo this.

House took off his suit coat and hung it up beside Isabella's new dress. The night had started out so well. He thought they were happy, but apparently he was wrong. Isabella had been carrying his shit all this time and he was so self absorbed he didn't even realize it.

He stood in the middle of the room. He couldn't sleep on the chair again. Last time he did that he had a heart attack from the severe pain in his leg. He wanted to sleep holding his wife. Ya, that's all she needed after everything he had put her through, she had already told him not to touch her.

Cuddy had been right, he chose himself over everyone else. He had told her that he could do better, but she knew better; Cuddy knew better. She knew him better than anyone else on the planet and she knew that he couldn't do better. He swallowed more pills. Cuddy had been right to leave him. He didn't deserve her, either.

And now he had screwed up again and this time he had wounded someone who never hurt anyone in her life. He had wounded an abused child, for christ's sake. What the fuck was wrong with him? His dad could tell from the time he was little; Gregory House was a worthless fuck up, and he took everyone in his path down with him.

He grabbed his cell phone and swiped Isabella's card key off the dresser, wrote a quick note on a motel pad of paper in case Isabella woke while he was gone, and then he went outside and sat in his car. He hadn't been to see Dr Nolan for nearly two years, but he still knew his emergency number. He dialed and the answering service picked up. "Is this an emergency?" the voice said.

"Ya, it's an emergency."House croaked out.

He had to wait until the answering service called his doctor and then Nolan came on the line.

"House, are you in a safe place?"

"Yes, I'm sitting in my car."

"The service said this was an emergence. Are you planning to hurt yourself?"

"No."

"Have you overdosed?"

"I've taken my Vicodin, but not enough to kill me."

"OK, you are in a safe place. You are not going to hurt yourself and you haven't overdosed. You said you were in your car. Where is your car?"

"I'm outside my wife's motel room."

This was new. House was married and living in a motel? No he had said he was outside his wife's motel room, not their room. Nolan was on uncertain territory and he was worried. Was this more domestic violence? House had a history; he had driven his car into Cuddy's house, he had punched people at bars and at work. Nolan didn't like this.

"Is your wife alright, House?"

"No, it's all my fault. I fucked up and hurt her."It sounded like House was crying.

"What did you do, House? Did you physically hurt her?"Nolan asked with dread.

"NO! Not physically."

"What is your wife doing right now? Is she with you?"

"She is inside sleeping, that's why I came out here. I didn't want to wake her up."

"House, do you need to come into the hospital? Nolan was relieved that House's wife was apparently unharmed, physically.

"No… I just don't know what to do."

"Ok House…do you want to tell me what is bothering you?"

And so House started his story. Once he started he couldn't stop until he was done. He and Nolan talked for more than two hours. The crisis was abating. Nolan gave him an appointment to come into the office at ten the next morning. With his leg, he probably couldn't make it before then. Nolan told him that he would see him in the morning, but to call before then if he needed to. Nolan broke his own rule and gave House his private number. House, for some unknown reason, had always been one of Nolan's favorite patients. Nolan was worried but by the time they got off the phone he felt confident that House and his wife would be OK until tomorrow He seemed to be getting back to the old House by the end of the phone consult.

House felt strangely calm after telling Nolan everything that had happened to him during the last couple of months. He only wanted to go in and sleep beside his wife. So he did. He was careful not to get too close, but Isabella was all curled up in a ball…way over on one side of the bed. There was plenty of room. He watched his wife sleep. He leaned over and gave her a gentle kiss on her temple. Damn him. She had to go for a job interview tomorrow after he got her so upset. He reached out with his hand and gently caressed the back of her hand with his index finger, comforted by the contact.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26: The Couple Have Some Big Decisions to Make

The following morning Isabella woke first. She saw Gregory House sleeping on the other side of her bed. She was embarrassed and ashamed. She had made a fool of herself crying last night, in front of her husband, no less. She wanted to sink into an invisible cloak. She did not want to face him. She had acted the idiot.

She looked over at her sleeping husband. Even in his sleep he looked upset and worried. She had done that to him. He had never been anything but honest with her from the very beginning. He had never wanted the baby, had wanted her to get rid of it. He hadn't lied. Why did she go off on him last night? Nothing had changed, she knew what the situation was and she fell in love with him, anyway.

She never loved anyone the way she loves Gregory House, she finally admitted to herself. The situation was hopeless, she knew it was. She had a responsibility to her baby. She wanted to take care of her baby, but she wanted Gregory House, too. She also wanted to be free and not tied down to anything. She wanted to live her life, spend her money, make decisions, and go where she wanted to go all without having to take other people into consideration. She didn't want to be trapped.

She had harbored some unrealistic, little kid daydream in which her husband would change his mind and love the baby. They would raise their child together and live happily ever after. Right, because that is how real life always worked out; happily ever after.

She had loved going to sleep and waking up beside Gregory House when they were staying at Danny's, taking care of the girls. She wanted that forever. Her heart squeezed together painfully because she knew that couldn't happen. She had to and wanted to take care of her child. She knew how it felt to know that your biological father didn't want you and she never, ever wanted her son, or daughter to know that kind of deep, deep pain. How could she protect him from that?

Her attention came back to her husband. Isabella shyly and self consciously reached out with her fingers and gently rubbed her husband's arm, just a quick rub, more of a quick touch; really, then she snatched back her hand. She had never touched him before; not that she remembered anyway. She liked the feeling. It felt good, like last night when her husband put her flowers on her dress. She touched him again, a little longer this time. She felt a little ball of fire sear deep inside her lower pelvis. The feeling was disturbing, but also very nice. Huh. She got a little bolder and touched his arm higher up, on his shoulder, then his chest. She wanted to touch her lips to his, but she wasn't quite that bold, and he might wake up. He started to stir. She pulled her hand back and shifted quickly back to her side of the bed before he could wake up.

Gregory House had been awake when Isabella had first touched him. He pretended to be asleep because he didn't want her to stop. Now he yawned and stretched noisily, making a show of waking up. He smiled sleepily at her, like he knew what she had done! Gregory House leaned over her, looking for signs that she wanted him to stop. When he got none he gently placed his lips on hers. Her first kiss! It was nice, made her lips tingle. She liked kissing. She wanted him to kiss her again. That little ball of fire was now an inferno. He used his fingers to gently brush the hair out of her face and back behind her ears. His fingers had electricity in them. He kissed her again. Her breasts felt weird and that other place as well. She liked this; she liked everything about this. She boldly reached up and placed her hand flat on his shoulder, where her fingers had been before he woke up. He gave her a big smile.

"Hi." He said, leaning over her.

"Hi." She said.

And then she lifted her head and placed her lips on his! He went out of his mind with pleasure. It was so sweet, so innocent! He had wanted this for so long. He loved her boldness. He kissed her back, still a closed mouth kiss, very gently, but it felt good, very good. He didn't want to go too fast and scare her, but he also wanted to make love to his wife; caress her all over, kiss her all over. He wasn't sure how far he could go before she would stop enjoying his lovemaking and become scared; she was so young and innocent, so he pulled away from her a little. Isabella lay back down, with a shit eating grin on her face. House was on cloud nine, he laughed out loud in happiness; Isabella was equally as happy. House felt like he had never been with a girl before, Isabella had never been with a man before, not really. Their night together didn't count, really. Neither of them had chosen that, none of that; they didn't remember that. This was their first kiss, their first caresses. It was wonderful. House placed his hand on the side of her head and used him thumb to rub back and forth over her hair a few times. Then he leaned down and placed a playful kiss on her nose. He had decided to stop while he still could. He didn't want to overwhelm Isabella, didn't want to scare her away. Isabella wasn't overwhelmed at all, she was happy and excited and her body felt weirdly… something. She wanted more kisses.

"I think I remember that somebody has an important job interview today." Gregory said, pretending to think.

"I wonder who that could be." she said, playfully playing along.

They got up and started their day. They didn't have a morning routine together, so they muddled along. Gregory had to go home and change before work; Isabella had to get dressed and go over what she wanted to share and what information she wanted to learn at her interview.

They didn't want to go their separate ways, so they went to the restaurant for breakfast. After they had ordered their food Isabella tried to bring up last night. Gregory didn't want to upset her again before her interview, and he wasn't ready to talk. He needed to see Nolan first, to figure things out.

"I'm sorry…about last night."Isabella looked embarrassed.

"You have nothing to be sorry about. I'm the one who messed up."Gregory took responsibility.

He decided to take a big risk and confide in her about Nolan and his time spent in the mental hospital and to tell her a little about what he was thinking and feeling, forgetting that he didn't want to upset her before her interview.

"Isabella…I need a little time before I'll be ready to talk about this. I just want you to know that I don't feel the way you think I do. I'm pretty screwed up."He confessed as he stirred his coffee.

House assessed her face to see if he should continue; he had lost Cuddy because he took one pill. Would he lose Isabella, too? He decided that she needed to know anyway. If she was going to leave him over this, then there wasn't much he could do to change her mind.

He began, "A few years ago I went to a rehab facility for addiction to the Vicodin that I use for my leg pain. I let it get out of hand and took too much on a regular basis. I took so much that I started having hallucinations."

Isabella was still there, listening. She hadn't left, yet. She just sat there, quietly.

"I checked myself into a hospital to detoxify from the Vicodin." Gregory continued.

Isabella continued listening closely, saying nothing. Gregory House took this as a good sign.

Isabella knew that he still overused his Vicodin, she had seen him swallowing several pills at once and at intervals that were much too close together. If he did this **after** rehab, that wasn't a good thing. Isabella knew that wasn't a good thing.

"I worked with a psychiatrist while I was there, his name is Dr Nolan. He helped me a lot. I haven't been his patient for a couple of years, now, but …"he looked away, thinking, "last night; after you fell asleep I called him. I made an appointment to see him later this morning."

Gregory watched for Isabella's reaction. She seemed pretty calm. He didn't see that she had become withdrawn and remote from him.

"I need to talk to…I need some help…I just need to talk…some help. We've had a lot of important things happen to us in a very short period of time. We just seem to be dealing with things by the seat of our pants. I need to sort things out." He stopped talking, unsure of what else to say.

Isabella drank some of her juice. "I know." she said.

House was relieved that she understood. She really understood. She understood because she was going through the same thing. House was encouraged.

House sat back in his chair, thinking. "Maybe it would be a good idea for us to go together. Would you be willing to do that? Would you like to go see Nolan together? We have the same issues to work on. It would be like couple's therapy, or something. Just about the things we have in common, I think that could work." he agreed with himself. "I have this appointment with him this morning. I'll talk to Nolan about it."

He needed to talk to Nolan alone, first, to figure out what the hell was wrong with him and how to try to be a father who wasn't like his dad. He was terrified that he would damage his child like his dad had damaged him. He knew the statistics on abused children abusing their own children. He didn't want that but he didn't know if he could do anything to stop it. That was why he didn't want a kid. That and the fact that he was 53 years old, for christ's sake. He was too old to do the daddy thing. He didn't want his kid to call him dad, either, too many bad associations with that word. Father was too formal. Ummm.

Isabella could see him struggling and she brought him back to the present.

"Gregory House, I don't know. I just don't know. Let me think about all of this. You've given me a lot to think about and I need time to do that."

House deflated. He thought she was talking about couples' counseling with Nolan. He didn't know why she needed time to think about that. It just made sense He didn't realize that she was rethinking their entire relationship.

After a minute Isabella softly asked, "You said that you don't feel about our child the way I think you feel. What do you feel about him, exactly?" she needed to know.

House was trying, he really was trying, but he just didn't know what to say, what to think. He wanted his wife, he thought he wanted his child, but those were some of the things he needed Nolan's help sorting out.

"I…I don't want to get rid of it, I don't want to kill it" This was so hard, he was trying so hard. "I…Isabella, my dad…he wasn't a good dad… I need to…something… before the kid is born. That is one of the reasons, a big reason that I need to talk to Nolan."

"And I'm one of the other reasons?" she asked.

Was this a trap? No, Isabella didn't set traps; she wasn't like that. "Ya, you, the baby, what happened to us, what we want to do…"

"Yes, I understand."Isabella said. And she did, she understood because she was having a difficult time, too.

They sat quietly and finished their meal. House went home and then off to work and his appointment with Nolan. He felt good about what he and his wife had accomplished today. They had made a lot of progress.

Isabella went back to her motel; she had to get ready for her interview soon. She was exhausted and defeated. Today had started out so great; she had her first kiss, she had been so happy. She had dared to hope that everything would work out; and then the bottom had fallen out of her world, again. Her husband was a drug addict. She couldn't think about that right now. She would think about that later. She couldn't deal with that right now. She loved him, tears burned her eyes, but she pushed them down.

She had to get ready for her interview, now; she would think about all the other things later.

Isabella wanted to be ready for the interview. She had hoped that she would get the job so she would be able to stay in town with her husband. But Isabella was much more troubled about Gregory House's confession of his drug addiction than she let on. It bothered her a lot and she didn't know what to do about it. She didn't know if she could deal with it and she didn't want to raise her child around a drug addict. Her biological mother was a heroin addict. Her child would have addiction genes on both sides of the family, she worried. Isabella knew how addicts were. She had no illusions. She didn't want any of that in her life. What in the world was she going to do? Why couldn't life be simple? Why did it always have to be so hard? Maybe it wasn't a matter of if she **could** deal with it, but if she **wanted** to deal with it.

She thought about the kisses they had shared this morning. What was she going to do? She missed him already so much….and they had spent all night and morning together.

She had to think about her interview.

It would be better to find work out of the area. Then she would have a good reason for breaking up with Gregory House. They could just let the divorce go through like they had planned. Oh god…what would she tell him? How would she tell him? She couldn't stay with a drug addict, she just couldn't deal with that, she didn't want to deal with that. She didn't want her child to have to live with that. What the hell was she going to do? Leaving town, putting some distance between them, that would be easiest. Let the distance do the work. Yes, that would be best.

She had a plan for today. Having a plan always made Isabella feel more in control. Today she would get ready and go to her interview. What if she was offered the job? What would she do? Could she stay away from Gregory House if she lived in the same city? No. She couldn't. She couldn't stay in the same town and stay away from Gregory House. She wanted to be with him.

What should she do about the interview? She should cancel it. Shouldn't she? She was conflicted. She had to decide. She had to decide something now because the interview was in a couple of hours and she needed to decide.

She would go to the interview, she decided. If she was offered the job she could always ask for time to decide. That's what she would do. She had a plan for today, Isabella always felt better, more in control when she had a plan. She would take the interview and think about other things later.


End file.
